DOCTORAL DISSERTATION SERIES

Tm p minus of m i M m e a t s in sp e m y im-im: a m y in m

D M i m / i J i f jm l m u m m s

AUTHOR e a r n m m u m

UNIVERSITY /IlCff. S?4f£ C M , DATE / 9Stj

DEGREE PL 0. PUBLICATION NO,

I UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS 5 ANN ARBOR • MICHIGAN Gop^ri^ht by Ruth fciusselman 1952 nlTI'i'UDEu UE Turi/RLRRu I.. GERiiDiivY 1815-1890;

n ST Jxj'/. m i-Hr, DE\ZULOPIi/.iEnT OR uunE AIuERloAu IDEnS

An ABSTRACT

ty

Rutu Ann i-usselman

Submitted to the Ecnool oi Graduate Studies ol‘ *-icnigan State College of agricultural and Applied Science in partial lullillment of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR Ur FrilLGSCFdY

Department of History

1952 r

Approved. {y(jaGtiv nr>. huth liu5 s elman

AlthoUf-;a the rnnerican traveler in hurope has long been

a reco:;ni ^ ed phenomenon oi' .American civilization, little

research nas been cione in the extensive historical record

or the nnerican traveler --- the travel narrative. a lar0e

boay oi' literature, especially or nineteenth century

Ainei-icans in ILurope, recounts the travelers' impressions

cl' the countries they visited. Utilizing this material conceriitf' the American traveler in Germany, this investi­ gator attempts to determine wny the American traveled tc

Germany, wnat nis attitudes were toward German society, culture, an

Trie early nineteenth century American's interest in

Germany stemmed primarily i'rom an intellectual impulse generateu ty the ti-emendous development in German thought ana letters at tne enu or tue eighteenth and the beginning ol the nineteenth centuries anu i'rom the awakening of' the

German national spirit during the Napoleonic Wars. This idea ran parallel to tne nationalistic optimism about the i'ut M ‘tt oi' mis own nation that colored the thought of* the early nineteenth century mnerican. /or this reason, he traveled to Germany during the first half of tne century witn three images in hit mind: he saw himself as a "pilgrim1' seeking the culture of Germany or seekiiig enlightenment Ruth musselman

on tne lives and customs ol' other peoples; he saw his own

nation as the preat example that would teach ana leaa other nations oi* the worlu. in the establisnment ol* democratic

governments anu societies; ana ne visualises, and liKea,

Germany as the potential Protestant leader in Rjrope both

in culture ana in liserai government•

Tne experience oi tne American traveler in Germany in

the nineteentn centurv v.'itnesseu tne grauual breakdown oi*

these images* Socially, tie i’ounu many aspects ol German

civ.LIT zation tna t v.'cre lar less re line o ana intellectual .1 zeu t nan lie nan :in::;.. ined. Culturally, he ~ rantec Gexm.an suer i _rity in the cultivation ot arts anu letters, but ne

1 - i t tm t his c alt. uro d i d not embrace the whole oi* German

i-i e • Foil l LCt.i.i y , ii<-; i tnat, ,i . i e oi tne existence oi* both liberalism ana nati> nal.ism in Germany, the traditions oi* mil.it arism, ptternali sm, autocracy, a state controlled ciurcM, ana ^re&t economic inec.pus.lity promised little in trio eventual establishment ol a democratic nation in Central burette. i'ufc ultimate unilication oi* Germany unaer rismsrek ana tn. res ilt in,., new German nmp.ij.-e a as he a tne American's nopes lor the creation ol a liberal German state alter the pattern ol the United States.

On the other iianu, the late nineteenth century nine r*i can. traveler snowed less optimism than the arl'-r traveler in Huth kusselman

regard to the future or his own nation and in his view ol himself*. he indicated that, while he appreciated the superior political and economic advantages of iii'e in the

Jnitea btates, he I'elt a sense or dissatisfaction with the social life in materialistic post-Civil .Var nmerica. He became somewhat skeptical ol* the purpose anu value oi' travel anu oi* the destiny oi* both the Unitea dtates and mankind. Finally, he still expex-ienced the magnetism of the tradition anu culture oi* European civilization. ATTITUDES ur' AlviEHlCAi'vi Ta a VELERS ID GEiii...xjDY ISIS—1390J

A 3xUD.i ii< TiixL DE/El 0 Jr'iitivhi T Oi*' BUIE AinILRICx*n IDEa S

By

Ruth Ann kusselraan

A THESIS

Submitted to the Scnool of Graduate Studies of kichigan State College of Agricultural and Applied Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR UE PHILOSOPHY

Department of History

1952 TABLE uF CONTENT8

Chapter Page

ACKN OALEOGELENT

I. I Ivi TR 0 DUG TI Oh ...... 1

II. TnE a MERICa N T R A V E L E R ...... 21

Tne Traveler's linage ol* Rim sell* as a T r a v e l e r ...... 24

The Traveler's Consciousness oi* America . 58

The American Traveler's linage of Germany • 56

III. TRE GEniij^ii'. PEOPLE, CUEi'omO a LB EOCIa L LIFE . 70

Nature oi* the German P e o p l e ...... 75

German Customs ...... 93

German Eociai L i r e ...... 109 IV. CULTGnE : EC CCATIoL, THE ART8 J REL1 GI ON • 12-1

E d u c a t i o n ...... 126

Literature ana the A r t s ...... 144

R e l i g i o n ...... 156

V. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC L I F E ...... 171

Basis for ^jnerican Optimism: Literalism anu Nationalism ...... 178

Basis lor /iraericm Skepticism: Militarism, Paternalism, ana Economic Inequality . . 196

The revolution ol* 1 8 ^ 8 ...... 208

The Unification of Germany ...... 219 TaBLa, OF Culv IELT5 (conta )

Cnapter Page

VI • Ti±jj m..E.iIGAd Tid-.VELE.i AliD TnLn EVii GERiLaLY • ■ 233

militarism and Paternalism ...... 245

Economic Life and the German Empire . . . 257 VII. uU. E GEPHESEi/xAlI VE T R A V E L E R S ...... 266 /III • u ...... 251

Bibliographical Essay ...... 233

Appendix A CKN OWLEDGEkENT

I wish to express my thanks to Dr, Richard Dorson Tor his helpful advice and constant encouragement during the research and writing of this thesis. I ain also indebted to many members of the history Department and the English

Department of Liehiran State College for their unfailing interest ana kindness to me during my graduate work, especially to Dr. John 1. Harrison for his endless patience in tne tedious details of advising graduate students.

Grateful acknowledgement must also be made co the staff of the Lichigan State College Library, especially to

L'rs. Henrietta Alubowicz for her nelp in obtaining books on inter-library loan, to the staffs of the Lichigan State

Library and the University of Lichigan Library, to kiss

Alice koore of the Detroit Public Library, and to kr. kerwin Phelps of the Library of Congress. Finally, i I must express rny deep appreciation to my frienus and family for their unceasing loyalty, as well as their tolerance and forbearance, during the many difficulties encountered in the writing of this thesis. INTRODUCTION

When the end of World War II provided the world with a chance to engage in peaceful pursuits, American travelers flocked to Europe in i*ecord numbers. They jammed available ships and planes and penetrated the entire continent this side of the Iron Curtain. So common has the American travel­ er become in the twentieth century that some categories of American tourists in Europe have achieved the recognition of stereotypes: the school teacher on summer vacation, the youth hosteling students, the business man who has accumu­ lated a fortune and a culture deficiency. In fact, the American who spends a few months in Europe and returns home to write a book about it has come to be regarded as a rather tiresome joke. Although the numbers of Americans traveling in Europe has elicited a good deal of comment from the press, the American traveler himself is not a social phenomenon peculiar to the twentieth century. Actually, the custom of a "trip to Europe** is deeply embedded in the American heritage. In colonial times, the Virginia gentleman frequently received his formal education in England, as in the case of William Byrd of Westover, and the eighteenth century American of the Enlightenment was attracted by the glow of French thought under the Old Regime* In the nineteenth century, the "grand tour" was suill considered the mark of a cultivated gentleman, and others, scientists like Oliver Wendell Holmes who sought the hospitals of Paris and Vienna, scholars like Edward Everett who sought the libraries of Germany, artists like Washington Allston who sought the insxjiration of Italy, and intellectuals like Henry James who sought the refined society of England, contributed to the flood of Americans in Europe. In the twentieth century, the self-sentenced expatriate of the twenties was, perhaps, only a peculiar expression of a basic impulse in American culture. This does not mean that Americans have been the only people who traveled and wrote about their travels. The United States has been the object of European curiosity, and French, British, and German visitors, distinctly different from the immigrants, have traveled extensively in this country. American sensibilities were severely wounded by the criticism of a Charles Dickens or a Mrs. Trollope who wrote travel narratives of their experiences, while a work like Alexis de Tocqueville *s Democracy in America has achieved an almost classic position for its insight and intelligence. In fact, one nineteenth century American traveler in Europe claimed that Americans should have the same right to use their travels as a basis Tor critical comment upon Europe.^" Even in the area of this particular study, Germany, the British and French were frequent travelers, and the British writers on Germany, William Howitt, John Russell, John Aiton, and others, undoubtedly influenced American travelers in Germany, Yet certain features of the American traveler in Europe have been so distinctive that a studj' of the subject merits attention apart from the other movements of peoples. In the first place, the American traveler of the nineteenth century was distinguishable from his colonial counterpart in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, for the latter had a dual attachment: to his home in the New World and to the 2 Mother Country. The American traveler in Eux*ope was equally different from the European immigrant who established a permanent residence, who sent down roots, who adopted a new nationality in the New World. For, in most cases, the Amex-ican traveler remained just that an American traveler-- to the end. Even though his trip extended into a residence of several years, his status in his own mind was always

^ Henry Ruggles, "Introduction,H Germany Seen without Spectacles (Eoston, 1883). 2 Philip Rahv, ed., Discovery of Europe: the Story of American Experience in~the Old World (Boston. 1947), p. xi. 4 that or a temporary sojourner* peculiarly detached from the scene he witnessed. And, finally, the American traveler was thrust into a scene much farther removed in space and time from his homeland than the British or French traveler on the continent. The problem of the American traveler in Europe would seem to be worth analysis. Like any problem, it raises a number of questions. Why did (and do) Americans feel the necessity of going to Europe? What were they seeking? How did the different areas and cultures of Europe affect them? And what did they bring back from the continent beyond the souvenirs, the mementos, the books, the paintings, the Parisian fashions? What made Europe a Mecca to Americans? A good many Americans have sx>eculated on the answers to these questions. The novelist has not left untouched such a fertile field for exploitation. Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Marble Faun. Washington Irving in Sketch Book and Twigs of a Ti'aveller. Herman Melville in Redburn. and, of course, Henry James in The American. The Ambassadors and Daisy Miller, to name a few, have presented artistic interpretations of the American in Europe. In the twentieth century, writers like John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, Ring Lardner, Sinclair Lewis, and Thomas Wolfe have all worked over this theme. 5 But aside from these treatments on a philosophical and psychological plane, there remains a large body of material that represents the historical record of the American travelers. These were the travel narratives, in which ordinary citizens, at least in relation to masters like Hawthorne, Melville, and James, recorded their impressions of Europe. These were the writers who represent the factual basis for the truism about the man going to Europe and writing a book about it. Many of these books were series of letters and were first published in tne local papers of Flint, Nashville, Cincinnati, or St. Louis. Many were by individuals whose sole claim to literary achievement is confined within the covers of one book concerning a trip to Europe. Many closely parallel a guide-book. But, as a whole, they represent the written record of Americans who went to Europe and recorded their impressions. Social and literary historians have utilized this material to some extent to answer the questions raised by the problem of the American in Europe,1 but the area most neglected by all the studies has been Germany. To many

1 See Robert L. Scott, American Travelers in France 1650-1660 (Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Yale University, 1940); Robert E. Spiller, The American in England during the First Half-Centurv of Independence (New York7 1926): R. B. Mowat, Americans in England (Boston. 1935); fit - individuals supremely conscious or the nation which has involved the world in two terrible conflicts in the twentieth century, this may appear paradoxical. Telling the story of modern history ana omitting the impact of Germany upon world consciousness is like describing a boxing match with only one contestant for the title. Yet, in the light of nineteenth century history, it is not astonishing that relatively few travelers from America went to Germany until well into the nineteenth century and that the scholars have concerned themselves far more deeply with American travelers in England and France. In spite of the indelible impression made by German culture upon American philosophy and education in the nineteenth century, in 1815 most Americans were only dimly aware of the great stretch of Europe between a familiar France and an enigmatic Russia. They knew it, perhaps, as the remnant of the Holy Roman Empire that Napoleon had declared dead in 1806, as the eternal battlefield of European history, as the home of the Hessian mercenaries who fought for the British in the Revolutionary War, as the little known and little understood dominions of the Hapsburgs and Hohenzollerns, or as the European origin of hundreds of back country farmers in Pennsylvania, the Ohio Valley, New York, Virginia, and the Carolinas. Van Wyck Brooks stated that George Ticknor and Edward Everett had 7 real difficulty locating a German grammar and a German dictionary with which to study the language before going to the University of Gb'ttingen.^ John Quincy Adams, who had been to Prussia on a mission in 1797, possessed a copy of Goethe's The Sorrows of Werther, and a few other New England scholars had German books*3 But Germany itself, in cultural New England, was virtually an unknown quantity* Aflame with curiosity and enthusiasm for Germany that Madame de Stall's D 1Allemagne and a pamphlet by Charles de Villers on the University of Gbttingen had aroused,4 the New England literary lights blazed the trail to Germany. Everett and Ticknor were followed by Joseph Green Cogswell, George Bancroft, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Lothrop Motley, James Russell Lowell, Henry Adams, and William James. More significant, perhaps, they were also followed, not necessarily to the universities but to Germany, by dozens of lesser Americans from the middle states and the South and the West who brought back ideas about Germany

^ Van Wyck Brooks, The Flowering of New England (Modern Library Edition, New York, 1926), pp. 73-75. o Charles Francis Adams, ed., Memoirs of John Quincy Adams (Hew York, 1913-17), I. 3 Brooks, Flowering of New England, p. 76. 4 Orie William Long, Literary Pioneers: Earlv American Explorers of European Culture (Cambridge. 1935). p. 10. 8 and Germany's culture. The trickle of American travelers to Germany in the early part of the nineteenth century had become a flood by the end of it. A brief sketch of nineteenth century German history in part explains the apparent early neglect of that nation by the American traveler in Europe.'*" In one sense, the course of Germany parallels the course of the United States in the nineteenth century, for both nations emerged at the end of the century as national states of formidable power. But at the beginning of the century, the position of the United States was far more promising than that of Germany, for the latter was at that time, in fact, not a "nation" at all. In spite of a bux’st of nationalism in the German states during the Napoleonic Wars, the peace settlement at the Congress of Vienna successfully thwarted German hopes for a united nation. Instead, the settlement left her a heterogeneous group of thirty-nine sovereign states, loosely organized into a weak confederation and governed on the principle of "legitimacy." The Bund had neither the means nor the power to enforce unity among the ruling

^ The historical material in the following paragraphs is based on Sir Adolphus William Ward, Germany 1815-1890 (Cambridge, 1916) and Veit Valentin, The German People: Their History and Civilization from the Holy Roman Empire to the Third Reich (New York. 1946 ). d

houses of the independent states ana principalities.

Kurtiiermore, the reactionary sentiment at the Congress of

Vienna buttressed the power oi' the ruling 1‘amilies and

prevented the Diet at Frankfort from being anything more

than a gathering of ambassadors from the states of inde­

pendent rulers.

The two chief forces of nineteenth century German

history were a drive toward unification and a drive

toward liberalization of the autocratic governments. In

the ena, the latter was sacrificed to the former, but at

the beginning when most liberals were under the sway of

French revolutionary principles anu philosophy, it was

noped that both a national and a liberal state could be

achieved simultaneously. The situation was further

complicated by the fact that the two most powerful states,

nustria and Prussia, were jealous of each other’s power as

well as frightened by the democratic ideas which threatened

the control of the Hapsburgs and Hohenzollerns. They were

determined that .nationalism meant Prussian or Austrian domination of Germany and that any concession to the liberals meant a loss of monarchical power and prestige.

For over thirty years, Prince Hfetternich of Austria and the Quadruple Alliance kept these two forces of liberalism and nationalism fix’mly under control. The promised constitutions of 1814 and 1815 were either not 10 forthcoming at all in the German states or were mere pretenses of representative government. Any eruptions of liberal sentiment like the Burschenschaft movement of 1617 were quashed by autocratic rulers. Yet the liberal and national forces were by no means spent, and in spite of the reaction, the growing middle class in the Germanies and the Prussian Zollverein or customs union indicated the urgency of the pressure for a unified Germany with a constitutional govern­ ment. South Germany became a stronghold of liberal sentiment, and when the Revolution of 1848 broke out in France, it touched off revolutionary uprisings all over Germany. The center for the "pan-German" revolution was at Frankfort, although most of the states were individually affected and Berlin and Vienna were temporarily under the control of the insurgents. A Parliament of representatives elected from all the German states, primarily composed of liberals, met in Frankfort to write a constitution for a unified Germany. This was the so-called "Professor's Parliament" which began in hope and ended in failure. It could not resolve the basic question of how to reconcile a Catholic Austria and a Lutheran Prussia to a national state without giving either power the lion's share of control. Vftiile the Parliament debated, the traditional bulwarks of the monarchy in Berlin and Vienna, the army, consolidated the forces of reaction against the tide of 11 liberalism. When the Parliament finally proffered the headship of the new Germany to the King of Prussia, Frederick William IV refused to accept and relied upon the forces of reaction to halt abruptly the progress of the revolution. Although the Revolution had forced a written constituion of sorts upon Germany, without the support of either Prussia or Austria and at the mercy of the armies of the two powers, it ended in dismal defeat. The movement for unification was equally ended, for the moment, when Frederick William, who had hoped to establish a united Germany on his own terms, submitted to Austria at Olmtitz in the face of a strong Austrian army. Yet actual unification was not far off. In the course of the next two decades, Prince Otto von Bismarck rose to prominence in Prussian politics and became Minister-President of Prussia. This shrewd Prussian Junker intrigued with and manipulated foreign powers to suit his purposes, bewitched and tricked and ran roughshod over the liberals, scrapped the old Bund, helped create an efficient and modern Prussian army, and succeeded in unifying Germany under Prussian domination and Austrian exclusion. The final goal of Bismarck, the unification of Germany under Prussian leadership, was accomplished by a series of three contrived wars; the Danish War of 1864, the Austrian War of 1866, and 12 the Franco-German War of 1870. For the next two decades, he dominated German and European politics. Germany was a power to he reckoned with, and it was a new Germany, based upon the Prussian system of a strong, paternal, autocratic government supported by an invincible military arm and using a sham constitution as a sop to recognized nineteenth century liberalism. On the other hand, America emerged from the conclusion of her second struggle with Great Britain in 1815 on the crest of a great wave of hope. The purchase of Louisiana under the Jefferson administration had opened up immense new lands for settlement, and the beginnings of the industrial revolution promised economic, as well as geographical, expansion. For a good many years, Americans were too busy with this growth and with the new ideas that cropped up in American society to pay too much attention to developments in central Europe. It was not until the middle years of the century that the majority of American travelers in Europe became interested in something more than a trip down the Rhine in Germany on a European tour. By that time, the ideas of American scholars who had gone to Germany had begun to seep into the American mind, the new west had begun to fill up with nineteenth century Germans, and improved travel facilities made a trip to Germany more feasible. Until then, the standard European 13 tour Included England (and perhaps Scotland and Ireland), France, Italy, Switzerland, and the Low Countries. The purpose of this thesis is to trace the attitudes of American travelers in Germany from 1615 to 1890. This involves an investigation of the political ideas of American travelers in Germany, but it also entails an analysis of the American traveler*s ideas of the whole fabric of German culture, Including the nature of the people, the social life and customs, and the intellectual and religious life. The chapters are, therefore, organized on this basis with discussion of the American traveler*s ideas about German social and cultural life forming two separate chapters and discussion of the American traveler's ideas about German political and economic life forming two other chapters. Furthex*more, since this thesis is concerned with American intellectual history, an attempt has been made to determine how the attitudes of the American traveler in Germany illustrated or reflected the development in American thought over the course of the century. This involves analyzing the American traveler's attitudes to determine their relationship to the whole fabric of American thought. It involves examining what the American traveler felt about himself as a traveler and about the significance of his own nation in the destiny of western civilization. The ideas 14 discussed here were determined by the material in the travel narratives themselves when the traveler indicated how he felt about his own nation and his own culture viewed in contrast with German culture. It is this writer’s contention that the political experience of the American traveler in Germany over the course of the century contributed to the growing suspicion of the American intellectual that the future was not nearly so rosy and the world was not nearly so simple and susceptible to improvement as the early nineteenth century American had supposed. A good many of the notions that early nineteenth century Americans held as the surest and straightest roads to the realisation of the American dream for all nations appeared at the end of the century to be only cul-de-sacs, leading right back to tyranny, injustice, oppression, and inhumanity to man. The early nineteenth century enthusiasm for a future German nation, resting upon the democratic system, universal, education, and material progress, turned out to be one of those cul-de-sacs. Like so many other visions of the early nineteenth century, it became, in reality, a bitter disappointment, one with which a wiser and more mature American nation would have to deal. On the other hand, it was equally apparent in the second half of the nineteenth century, in spite of the disappointment Americans experienced in the ultimate 15 unification of Germany, that the picture was no more all black than it had been all white at the beginning of the century. Certain aspects of German life appealed to the travelers with such a force and intensity that they sharply pointed up an unsuspected drabness and shallowness in American life. If some Americans were disillusioned in the new Germany, they were also disappointed in the concrete realization of American culture in the post-Civil 'War years in the United States. According to one writer on the subject, Europe acted as one pole of culture while the frontier operated as the other catching Americans in a two-way pull*1 Most of the travelers in Germany experienced the attraction of that culture, and their reflections upon it seem related in motive and spirit to the social criticism of the late nineteenth century American thought* No investigation so interpretive and inferential in nature should be attempted without some comment about the hazards involved in arriving at any accurate and indisputable

Ferner Nuhn, The '.Vina Blew from the East. A Study in the Orientation of American Culture (New York. 1942), p. 18. Nuhn classifies Europe as part of the pull of the ”east" upon American culture as opposed to the west and the frontier. It includes, of course, the settled east as opposed to the unsettled west, or even the easternjpart of the state as opposed to the western part. He says, "West for work and money, back East for ease and grace* West for profanity, East for piety. West for action, East for status. West for function, East fox* ornament. West for democratic color, East for aristocratic form." p. 14* 16 judgments. This writer is well aware of those hazards. In the first place, the travelers were human before they were American. They were different from one another-- in age, disposition, health, occupation, and social position. Even if all these things had been equal, the travelers still would probably not have felt exactly the same way about the same thing. A particularly harsh statement might have been as much the result of immediate circumstances a sleepless night on a cramped, narrow, German bed, a bad cup of coffee for breakfast, a rainy day--as the result of a considered opinion based upon observation and reflection. The travelers frequently recorded their impressions In letters and journals, which reflect the spirit of the moment, and, for this reason, generalization about their feelings, in any permanent or comprehensive sense, must take cognizance of the ever­ present exception. The attitudes of the travelers do not submit easily to a hard and fast classification, and although this thesis attempts to seek out the overall pattern, contxasting opinions, when they have occurred,have been noted. Secondly, this study investigates an attitude, rather than an opinion. The travelers did not always state an opinion in so many words. They did not often debate or argue a point. On the contrary, their feelings toward a particular situation or state of affairs were usually 17 enveloped In descriptions of the scenery, the buildings, or historic points of interest. They were as inconsistent as they were genuine and natural, and as unreasoned as they were serious in intent and purpose. Conclusions based upon an analysis of the travel narratives are necessarily subject to the error of exaggerating the implications of the narx*atives into full-blown convictions. And, finally, the American traveler who wrote about his experiences did not necessarily speak for all American travelers or for all Americans back home. He was usually more literate than many of his countrymen, and his position in the American world was usually higher, intellectually, socially, professionally, or financially. A chart is furnished in the Appendix to indicate as far as possible the background of the travelers whose works have been used in this investigation.^ Although business men are represented, the travelers who wrote narratives tended to be from the professional classes: law, education, the ministry. A good many writers and journalists as well as politicians and Americans traveling in a diplomatic capacity have been included. The majority of the writers were from New England and the Middle Atlantic states, especially in the first half of the century, but the list does include some from the

^ See Appendix. 18 South and West as well. A fairly large proportion of the narratives were by women. In spite of these complications of the problem, this writer believes that valid conclusions and generalizations can be made from the material, which contribute significantly to an understanding of the American attitude toward Germany and to nineteenth century thought as a whole. Although the narratives do reflect the spirit of the moment, many of them were revised for publication in book form with the express purpose of winnowing out such weaknesses. Furthermore, an "attitude," for all its inconsistent, unstable, unreasoned, and elusive qualities, operates as a very real force in life. Locked into an inflexible position, it becomes a prejudice; slipping into mere vagueness, it becomes con­ fusion. It does not simply "arise" nor is it isolated from other ideas. The American attitude toward Germany has a long history, founded on ascertainable historical facts, part of which were the experiences of the American travelers in Germany. Furthermore, this attitude is intimately connected with the American's attitude toward himself and the world. Finally, although the bibliography utilized in this study is selective, both from the standpoint of the travelers who wrote and from the standpoint of the materials available to the writer, it is exhaustive as far as the resources 19 have allowed."** One cannot read nearly two hundred American travel experiences in Germany without drawing some distinct conclusions regarding those experiences. The writers taken as a whole must be assumed to represent Americans in Europe fairly, at least as far as the writers of any limited area of time or space may be said to represent that area. The use of other travel narratives, this writer feels, might duplicate the examples, might call for revision of minor points, but they would not substantially alter the overall picture of American travelers in Germany in the nineteenth century. Because this investigation is aimed primarily at examining American attitudes in Germany, it is necessary, first of all, to find out what the traveler felt about himself, his country, and Germany, to discover his reasons for going to Europe or Germany and his sensitivity to his own nationality. For the most part, the travelers speak for themselves, in the "prefaces" to their books or in their "hints to travelers" which made the trip to Europe such an accepted phenomenon in nineteenth century American civili­ zation. The first chapter is devoted, therefore, to a discussion of the American traveler and the area of his travels with which this study is concerned. The third

^ See Bibliographical Note, p. 286, 20 and fourth chapters cover the .American attitude toward the social life and the culture of Germany, The next two chapters analyze American reaction to German political life and, finally, a chapter is devoted to a discussion of some representative American travelers. CHAPTER I I

ThE i-wv.EAIC.ttu. InAVEL ER

The year 1315 was a portentous one in the history of

the western world. For Europe, it meant a desperate

attempt by the ruling houses of Europe to return to a

stable, familiar past in the peace settlement of the

Congress of Vienna. It signaled the conclusion of two

and a half decades of chaos with a momentary termination

of both the glory and bloodshed of war and revolution.

For England, it opened the threshold of a centuiy of

ascendancy; for France, it closed, but did not bar, the

door on experiments in social and political organization.

For Germany, it marked the beginning of a nation frustrating- ly confederated; for the United States, it represented the

successful conclusion of a twenty-five year infancy of the new Republic.

Yet the moods of the hew and Old Vvorlas were entirely different in 1815. Reaction set in at the Congress of

Vienna. It restored the Bourbons in France, hamstrung the

Frankfort Diet of the German Bund, recognized Austrian domination of Italy, and created the Quadruple Alliance to halt the progress of French Revolutionary thought. On the other hand, America was afflicted with no such reaction. 22 To the successful completion of her struggle for independence from Great Britain, thirty years * history had added a vigorous growth and a marked taste for that new wine of the French Revolution, nationalism. While Europe attempted to restore an old continent, America looked forward with enthusiasm to the development of a new one* The American traveler was conscious of his own nation­ ality in his travel narrative and of the prestige of that nationality in Europe. He carefully recorded all European reaction to America and Americans. Because nationalism conquered not only the United States but the entire western world, American self-consciousness persisted in American travelers in Europe until the end of the century. Even though the traveler's idea of himself and his nation evolved in expression in the course of the century, he did not forget that he was an American and, therefore, different from the German or the Frenchman or the Englishman. He was convinced of the unique position of the United States in western civilization. Yet, herein lies a paradox. Such a chauvinistic nation might have been content to stay at home to bask in the superiority of its advantages. This was not the case, for the travelers, as they themselves admitted, went to Europe in ever-increasing numbers. In the early part of the century, Americans in Germany were primarily scholars studying at the universities, but even as early as 1840, descriptive travel narratives of Europe were beginning to u e a arug on the max'ket. norace Greeley told tne young

Eayard Taylor who was about to BLepart Tor Europe: "I am sicK oi* descriptive letters, and will have no more or tnem. nut I should like some sketches of German life and society, after you have been there and know sometning about it."'*'

By the second half of the century, the travelers reported that Americans wex*e a commonplace in Eui'ope and

German;/. One writer called Americans a ''locomotive people"- far more traveled than Europeans whose mobility was limited 2 to the scholars and aristocracy. Another pointed out:

"Traveling seems to be the rule of life, for Americans especially, and staying home the exception."'"* Still another commented similarly: "A friend of mine declares ae will not go, it is so vulgar. The distinction, he says, A is now in staying at home." In 1867, George Bancroft reported that there were more American students at Berlin than students from Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark,

1 Bayard Taylor, "A Familiar Letter to the Reader," Views A-Foot (New York, 185a ), p. 22.

Nicolas Hurray [.Kirwan, pseud.’ I Saw Them in Europe (New York, 1853> 3 Margaret J. Sweat, -highways of Travel or a Summer in Europe (Boston, 1859), p. 1.

^ Erastus C. Benedict, "Preface," A Run through Europe (New York, I860), p. 16. 24

France, Great Britain, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal combined--not only students, but “professors from Ann Arbor and elsewhere*1 and ministers of the Gospel.'1' Another writer made an estimate in 1885 "There are some hundreds of Americans now in Berlin,-- just how many I cannot say; but o 250 sat down at Thanksgiving dinner yesterday." For all their nationalism, Americans felt a magnetic pull from European culture and, as a distinct part of that pull, from German culture. They were consciously American but they were also interested in Europe. Before attempting to resolve this apparent paradox and to determine what limerican travelers felt about their own nation and about Germany, it is necessary to examine what they felt about themselves as travelers, what reasons they gave for going to Europe, what they hoped to gain Cor lose) by the trip, and whether they felt traveling produced satisfactory results.

The Traveler*s Image of Himself as a Traveler

There is a peculiarly earnest diffidence in the "prefaces” and introductions" to the travel narratives.

^ M. A. DeWolfe Howe, ed., The Life and Letters of George Bancroft (New York, 1908), II, 191. ^ William Leonard Gaze, A Leisurely Journey (Boston, 1666), p. 96. 25 Not only did most of the writers seem to feel obliged to go, but, with American utilitarianism, they felt, apparently, obliged to justify the endeavor on high cultural, intel­ lectual, or educational grounds. ^ Not one of the writers, by his own admission, ever went for a good time, pure and simple. He went for any number of reasons which fall loosely within two classifications: a greater enrichment of his own culture by living in the presence of great paintings, operas, concerts, libraries, and coming in contact, if possible, with great literary and philosophic minds; or, enrichment of society by a more widely extended knowledge of men, manners, societies, and nationalities.

This seems particularly true of some of the i*merican travelers in Germany. A large proportion of the travelers went to study "peasant life" or "home life" or "education" or "politics." Although the evidence is as yet insufficient to support the point, this writer believes that the high- minded purpose of the traveler in Germany was more pronounced than that of the traveler in England, France, or Italy. Compare, for instance, some of the titles of French, Englisn, and Italian narratives with those by travelers in Germany: Old .vine in New Bottles. Tricolored Sketches of Paris. Parisian Sights and French Principles. About Paris. A Walk from London to Land’s End and Back. Old England: "Its Scenery. Art and People. Certain Delightful English Towns cf. Home Life in Germany. Peasant Life in Germany. Life Among the Germans. Germany Seen without Spectacles. It seems that the American took travel in England, France and Italy much more for granted than ti'avel in Germany, and the German narrative is permeated with this earnestness. 26 One of the most eloquent spokesmen for the first group was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He said he regarded Europe as a "kind of Holy Land" and "when its shores first rose upon my sight, looming through the hazy atmosphere of the sea, my heart swelled with the deep emotions of the pilgrim, when he sees afar the spire which rises above the shrine of his devotion. "■*" Bayard Taylor, an almost professional traveler, expressed a similar sentiment when he wrote, "I cannot disconnect my early longings for a knowledge of the Ola World from a still earlier passion for Art and Litera- p ture." Many Americans shared this longing for an actual experience with cultural masterpieces and, as one writer noted, a "goodly number" of .Americans livea in Dresden for 3 "educational pux*poses in art, literature, and music." In fact, one young woman cautioned her countrymen against disillusionment: "Unless people have an enthusiasm for art I don't see the least use in their coming abroad. If they cannot appreciate the culture of Europe, they are much better off in America."4

1 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Outre-Mer and Driftwood. The Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Riverside Edition, Boston, 1885), VII, 18-19. 2 Taylor, Views A-Foot. pp. S-9. 3 Maturin Murray Ballou, Foot-Prints of Travel or Journevinas in Many Lands (Boston^ 1396), p. 221. 4 Mrs. Fay Pierce, ed., Music Study in Germany from the H ome Correspondence of Amy Fay (New fork, 1900), p. 159. 27 The seekers of culture were prominent among American travelers throughout the century,1 but for some of the travelers the goal was something deeper and more intangible than mere aesthetic enrichment. They sought a sense of alignment with the past that the newness of American society failed to provide. It was, perhaps, that rootlessness, that mobility, that ephemeralness, which a dynamic nation and culture produced which drove some travelers forth to sense, momentarily, that heritage of history. This sense of the past occurred to most of the traveler's when they witnessed a particularly historic sight like the old castles on the Rhine or the Cathedral of Cologne, but for some it constituted a reason fox* making the trip. One writer said he was glad Americans were 11... visiting fox* themselves the classic spots which have for so many ages inspired the soul p of the poet, and guided the pencil of the painter." Another wrote, "I have always held a doctrine that to give an American balance, he should have a trip through the mother-world....The transatlantic world is to us the mother

1 Sometimes the Hculture-seeking** Americans embarrassed their fellow-countrymen. One writer tells the story of the American who offered to purchase a particular picture in Europe provided the artist painted a bottle of his patent medicine on a mantel in the background. Curtis Guild, Over the Ocean or Sights and Scenes in Foreign Lands (Boston, 1871)7" pp. 324-325. p Randall MacGavock, "Preface,** A Tennessean Abroad: ox* Letters from Europe. Africa, and Asia (New York, 1854). 28 world in every pnase of human life of art and thought--- except as to our peculiar American freedom....'*1 Aside from the "cultural" motivation, the other signifi­ cant reason stated by the travelers for going to Europe was to gain an increased understanding of men and affairs through observation of different cultures. These travelers did not want to observe the great cultural treasures of the western 7;orld as much as they wished to know the people. In fact, a number of books were written fox* the express purpose of enlightening the reader on the writex*'s g discoveries concerning the social life of the people. "Thex*e is nothing we so much wish to know as the daily life 3 and habits of a people...," wrote one travelex*. Another stated that he intended to avoid the usual guide books and objects of interest to tourists in order to study and obsex*ve the middle class. "These [_the middle c l a s s e d the men of business, the farmers, the merchants, the lawyers and

1 William Hemstreet, The Economical European Tourist: A Journalist's Three Months Abroad for $430 including Ireland. Scotland. England. France. Switzerland. Italy. Austria. Prussia iNew iork. 1878), pi lT 2 For example: Charles Loring Brace, Home Life in Germany (New York, 1856); Anna C. Johnson, Peasant Life in Germany (New York, 1858); Emma Louise Parry, Life among the Germans (Flint, Michigan, 1887); et_ai.. 5 Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 25. 29 scholars---are the influential portion of a People, who stamp especially its social character," he wrote.**- Many a writer eschewed the guide books and the standard means and routes of travel. (The walking tour became very popular during the century. ) One traveler wrote, "The first class tourist may see the beauties of a country's landscape and scenery from a window of a palace-car, but his vision goes no further does not penetrate below the surface. To know a country one must fraternize with its people, must live with them, sympathize with them, win their confidence." Bayard Taylor concurred in this statement when he said that one could not feel the "pulse of foreign life" by living in a great notel but only by living in a simple home. Another hoped that American travelers in Europe, by an increased consciousness of the life of the ordinary people, 4 "would become travelers and not mere tourists." Most American travelers who studied the social and political life of a nation did so not simply for the

"*" Brace, "Preface," Home Life in Germany, p. iv. p ^ Lee Meriwether, "Preface," A Tramp Trip: How to See Europe on Fifty Cents a Day (New York, 1887). ^ Bayard Taylor, At Home and Abroad, a Sketchbook of Life. Scenery, and MenT Second Series (New York, 1864), p. 204. 4 Hezekiah Hartley bright, "Preface," Desultory Reminiscences of a Tour through Germany. Switzerland, and France (Boston. 1S38), p. x. intrinsic merit of such an enterprise but because they felt it contributed significantly to better social relationships on both the domestic and international level. Even as early as 1845, one traveler remarked that American relations with Europe were increasing constantly and demanded of American citizens a real knowledge and understanding of other peoples and nations.*^ Another felt that knowledge of other people made current history real by translating g it into personal experience. Another described the benefit as an increase in American humility: "Nothing, perhaps, within the range of moderate expenditure, can confer* so rich a funa of knowledge to the intelligent observer as the conclusions deduced from personal and faithful study of the governments, manners, customs ana institutions visited. An American needs to learn that his countrymen do not monopolize A all the intelligence and enterprise of the world...." Some travelers limited the scope of their observations of the social structure. A traveler like Horace Mann was

^ John Mitchell, "-Preface, " Notes from over the Sea: Consisting of Observations Made in Europe in the Years 1843 and 1644 (New York. 1845), Ti ix. p Orlando William Wight, "Preface," Peoples and Countrie: Visited in a Winding Journey around the World iMew York. 1888), p"I vl

Francis Charles Sessions, "Introduction," On the Wing through Europe (New York, 1881). primarily interested in the schools and in studying the educational systems of Europe.1 One like James E. Scripps limited his investigation to things he thought would be of interest "...to western people of ordinary information-- to the intelligent farmers and mechanics of Michigan and 2 neighboring states...." However, it would be a serious mistake to leave the impression that all American travelers journeyed forth with a clear-cut purpose of noble proportions. The majority, it is true, were rather depressingly earnest of heart and spirit, at least from the point of view of the reaaer. But a few wrote introductions to their narratives that must have struck the majority of travelers li^e a dash of cold water. One particularly attractive writer maintained in forthright fashion: I do not make any pretensions to the character of a serious traveler whose business is to enlighten the world. It is my misfortune to possess an innate repugnance to hard labor of all kinds; and as for valuable facts and useful ini'ormation, my proclivities in that line were thoroughly eradicated by long experience in the government service, where both facts and information, as I very soon discovered, were regarded as irrelevant and impertinent in official correspondence.^

1 Horace Ifiann, Report of an Educational Tour in Germany. and Parts of Great Britain and Ireland. Being oart of the Seventh Annual Report of Horace Mann. Esci. (London, 1846), p. p James E. Scripps, "Preface," Five Months Abroad (Detroit, 1882), p. vi. 3 J. Ross Erowne, "Introduction," An American Family in Germany (new York, 1866), p. xiii. 32 Julian ^awthorne was equally skeptical concerning the proposed aims or the travelers. "The true end of travel is,* he wrote, "to reconcile us to our homes. We study fox-eign countries and customs, not for their intrinsic sake, but in order to compare them disadvantageously with our own...,"N1 In any case, the travelers returned home, by and lai*ge, happily "reconciled" to their homeland. Overwhelmingly they agreed that America was, after all, the best place to live. They felt that the greater material comforts, wider opportunity and freer movement and expression which America provided for its citizens more than compensated for the glaring newness of American cities, the rough life on the fx-ontier, and the lack of gracious refinement and cultivated manners in much American society. Such a conclusion is hardly astonishing. The immigrants pouring into American ports fx*om Europe acted in accordance with the verdict of American travelers. At least the ordinary man seemed to cast an overwhelming vote of confidence for life in the United States in the nineteenth century* Most writex*s took pains to express their sentiments upon their return to America. David Ross Locke

^ Julian hawthorne, Saxon Studies (Boston, 1876), pp. 10-11. 33 (Petroleum V. Nasby) summed up the balance sheet incisively: An American has no idea now good America is, till he sees Europe. xie does not know how good a government he has, till he lives fox- a time under others. It requires a glimpse of...King-ridden Frussia, to make him properly appreciate a Republic. We have no palaces, but we have no soldiers. Ae have no Cathedrals, but we have no paupers. Y«e have no ruins, and shall never have, for under our system, the ephemeral structures of today will be replaced tomorrow with what will be eternal. Evex*y American should go abroad once at least, that he may, with sufficient fervor, thank the fates that cast his lines in pleasant places.1 Another writer maintained that before her trip she was prejudiced, if at all, in favor of Germany, expecting to find elegance and refinement in the people. But her 2 expectations were not realized. Another one admitted that the traveler was more appreciative of the freedom from tyranny and oppression in the United States when he viewed it from the Eux-opean shore than when he was enfolded within the bosom of his native land.3 Still another stated firmly in defense of the basic criticism of Amex-ican society, 11 If any *merican be alarmed at the noisiness and boisterousness of his own country, which must, of necessity, always show

^ David Kasbv in Exil, ______, _ . ,. , _ ___ 2 Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 25. ^ S. S. Cox, A Buckeye Abroad: or. Wanderings in Europe, and in the O r i e n t (A»ew York. 1852). pp. 442-443. 34 the worst side to the world, just let him rub off a little in Europe; and he will find no cause for dissatisfaction with Republicanism.One writer summed up what he felt to be the basis for american superiority after returning from a trip to Europe, he saia Americans were justified in the conceit whicn boasted of a "superior condition in the three cardinal points of a nation's glory the general diffusion of the comforts and conveniences of life, the diffusion of education among the people, and the universal p enjoyment of civil and religious liberty." In spite of this overwhelming "majority vote" in favor of the United States, not all the travelers were convinced that travel accomplished the ordained purposes set for it. Mark Twain took a somewhat skeptical view of the actual value of travel when he wrote, "...I perceive that each of us, by observing and noting and inquiring, diligently and day-by-day, had managed to lay in a most

'X varied and opulent stock of misinformation." Another traveler remarked that travel in Europe did not necessarily

1 W. V*. Wright, "Preface," Dord'. bv a Stroller in Europe (New York, 1856), p. iv. 2 William Furniss, "Preface," The Old .Vorld: or Scenes and Cities in Foreign Lands (New York, 1850), pp. iii-iv. 3 Samuel Langhorne Clemens fllark Twain, pseud3 » A Tramp Abroad (New York, 1921), I, 164-165. 35 make the American a happier man, but it did make him wiser by sloughing off national prejudices and individual vanity.^ Joseph Green Cogswell admitted that Europe had taught him to admire a leisurely enjoyment or life that he did not have in the United States. He said he had developed a taste fox* sitting quietly in a garden enjoying a new sympathy with nature. Henry James, of course, was the classic nineteenth century case of an American who was not easily persuaded to trade the cultux*al tx*adition of Europe, a sense of the past, and the stability of an ordered pattern of society for the obvious advantages of a freer, more active, and more demanding Americen life. When still comparatively young, he felt more at home in Englana than in the United States, and he settled there permanently in 1875, finally adopting it as his native land in 1915. It was not as simple for him as this action indicates, for his Jamesian insight was much too penetrating to let the matter rest quietly. He channeled his international dilemma into a series of “international" novels, and he wx*ote searchingly of the peculiar position of the American in Europe. Although

^ H. H. bright, Desultory -Reminiscences, p. 342. ^ Anna Eliot Ticknox*, ed., The Life of Joseph Green Cogswell as Sketched in His Letters^ (Privately printed, Cambridge^ 1874), p. 99. 36

Eux-opean life suited his taste and temperament, his reason plagued him with self-doubt and self-distrust for the decision to remain abroad. He saw the American as a product of modern civilization, successful and in harmony with it by every criterion of it. Yet the -wmerican appeared to be rootless. He lacked the serenity and sense of belonging that a traditional civilization produced. In one of his travel essays, he described this rootless and ill-at-ease wanderer of Europe and his curiosity in regard to peoples of othex* nationalities : The observations of tfte “cultivated American" bear chiefly, I think, upon the great topic of national idiosyncrasies. He is apt to have a keener sense of them than Europeans; it matters more to his imagination that his neighbor is English, French, ox* German...He often seems to me to be a creature wandering aloof, but half-natui*alized himself. .His neighbors are out­ lined, defined, imprisoned, if you will, by their respective national moulds, pleasing or otherwise; but his own type has not hax*dened yet into the old- world bronze. Supex*f icially, no people carry more signs and tokens of what they are than Americans... • The signs, however, are all of the negative kind, and seem to assure you, first of all, that the individual belongs to a country in which the social atmosphere, like the material, is extremely thin.x The foregoing brief survey of the American traveler's view of himself as a traveler indicates a number of things about him fundamental to an understanding of his experience in Europe. Fox* one thing, the standard traveler from America, a mythical creature, of course, depai*ted for Eux*ope

^ Henry James, Transatlantic Sketches (Boston, 1900), p. 359. 37 with a definite purpose in mind*1 He was, on the whole, satisfied with American civilization, but a vague suspicion nibbled at his mind tnat perhaps his own nation lacked some ornamental, if not functional, thread in the fabric of its culture which somehow made life richer, more signifi­ cant, more satisfying. He returned home convinced that the advantages of life in America adequately compensated for this lack. This was the standard pattern for the standard traveler, the story that is repeated over and over again in the travel narratives. Occasionally, however, the chilly light of skepticism was focused not only upon the American scene but upon the traveler himself--his purposes, his conclusions, and the value of travel itself. Yet, the dates of publication of the more critical writers reveal a significant fact, uenry James and Mark Twain flourished in the post-Civil »Var period. The latter's work The Innocents Abroad poked a good deal of fun at the American mania for a trip to Europe and the standard travel narrative. J. Ross Browne wrote in the sixties and Julian ^awthorne in the seventies.

1 Usually, the traveler modestly assured the reader that he did not begin the trip with the intention of writing a book. Publication of the book was in most cases, according to the writers, at the insistence of friends or newspaper readers who had enjoyed his letters or his journals and felt others might profit from reading them. o8 On the other hand, the writers who enthusiastically embraced the doctrine of the educatioxial value of travel did their traveling and writing in the pre-Civil War period. Such writers as Hox*ace Mann, Bayard Taylor, William Furniss, Anna Johnson, John Mitchell and others belong to the period before 1860. It would seem safe to conclude that traveling, like other phases of American life, came in for its share of criticism in the growing skepticism of the late nineteenth century. This shift of attitude becomes even more evident in the changing feeling toward Araei'ican civilization.

The American Traveler1s Consciousness of America

The American traveler in Europe in the nineteenth century exhibited his consciousness of his nationality and its significance in the minds of Europeans. In the early part of the century, he received a flattering adulation from a war-weary European continent. The friendly interest in America that bloomed in Eux*ope after 1615 was gratifying to the American who pointed with pride to the concrete embodiment of px*inciples into an actual and forceful Constitution of 1789. It was gratifying to American travelers because they were prepared to spread the news of the success of the new nation like tx*ue apostles. 39 They agreed with Europeans who found life in America good. They were self-conscious, to be sure, because the experi­ ment in a republican form of government was new, but they were not yet defensive. French Revolutionary liberalism, as we EL as the new Romanticism, still colored early nineteenth century thought. If that liberalism had failed to achieve success in Fx-ance, it nad not failed in America. The early travelers to Germany from America exhibited a noticeable consciousness of the enthusiasm and interest which was felt in Europe toward America. As early as 1797, in fact, John Quincy Adams x*elated a conversation he had with Prince Henry of Prussia on a mission to that state. He wrote: His conversation discovered more knowledge of America, and a mind more turned to speculation, than any of the other Princes whom I have seen. He said that America was a rising, while Europe was a declining part of the world, and that in the course of two or three centuries the seat of the arts and sciences and empire would be with us, and Europe would lose them all....But he asked whether we should have a center of union sufficiently strong to keep us together, and to stand the trials of the inconveniences incident to republican, and especially to federative, governments."1- By 1315 the doubts of the ability of the United States to remain united had been dispelled to some extent, and Washington Irving reported a remarkably similar statement

^ J. Q. Adams, Memoirs. I, 210 40 in 1823 from Prince John, of Saxony. The latter said "America was in its increase and Europe in its decline."^" Another writer, ten years later, commented on the interest in America shown by the Prussian nobility.c Still another wrote from Germany: " 'The Future is with you. •- How often have I heard it in Germany..•• Other writers reiterated the friendly interest in the new nation of the western hemisphere, particularly among the scholars and aristocracy, throughout the early years of the century. Joseph Cogswell reported a conversation he had with Goethe in 1816 in which the great German writer "...turned the conversation to America, and spoke of its hopes and promises, in a manner that showed ithad been the subject of his inquiries, and made juster and more rational observations, upon its literary pretensions and character, than I ever head from any man in Europe."4 Cogswell also remarked that the Grand Duke of Weimar "Supposed we were free from moral and political corruption. ..I'5

■** Pierre M. Irving, ed. , The Life and Letters of Washington Irving (New York, 1864), l7 144. 2 Henry Hiestand, Travels in Germany. Prussia and Switzerland (Wew York, 1837), pp. 100-101. ° Brace, Home Life, p. 422. 4 Cogswell, Life, p. 57. 5 Ibid., p. 107. 41 George Bancroft similarly noted that Professor Eickhorn of Gfvttingen in 1813 said that America "was now making gigantic strides in improvement.... "^ The interest manifested by German leaders in American government seems to have been coupled with the principles of eighteenth century liberalism still forceful in European thought. America was associated witn that liberalism and was, therefore, the object of admiration of the liberals. That this was sometimes surprising to Americans, whose liberal ideas were rooted as much in actual political experience as in theoretical principles, was evidenced by George Calvert's astonishment at the enthusiasm accorded Tom Paine at Gottingen. lie remarked that in 1824, "I, who had never heard or seen the name of Thomas Paine uncoupled with derision and scorn, looked up with sudden surprise into the excited countenance of the professor, as he pronounced Common Sense the most important pamphlet in q history." The liberals' admiration of the American nation continued through the 1848 revolutions, and America became the great point of reference for the practice of democratic principles. Charles Loring Brace stated in 1851: "People have become so well infox-med on these matters {^American

1 Bancroft, Letters. I, 43. 2 George Henry Calvert, First Years in Europe (Boston, 1866 ), p . 100. republicanism^ , that here in Germany for instance, no discussion is ever carried on in the Parliaments, or through Pamphlets, on any great change in government, without at once the example of the United states being adduceu."1 The European enthusiasm Tor America was expressed in another way that the American travelers recognized and commented upon. This was the emigration to America, and it was an expression of enthusiasm of the lower classes. A young American woman commented: "I have been much amused with the sudden mania for emigrating with which every one seems bitten; the tailor*, the baker, down even to the little boy in the hotel, wish to swell our suite; apparently p thinking us a very great people at home.” Another mentioned that the "vast resources of our Western country” 3 seemed to fascinate the Germans. Henry Philip Tappan mentioned visiting a public beer garden called "Texas**at Ehrenbrietstein. He wrote, "Frequent conversations with

Brace, Home Life, pp. 355-356. p Martha Babcock Amory, The bedding Journey of Charles and Martha Babcock Amorv. Letters of Mrs. Amory to Her Mother. Mrs. Gardner Greene 1835-34 (Privately printed. Boston, 1922), II, 197. 3 Sweat, Highways of Travel, p. 160. 43 the middling and lower classes in Germany and Switzerland made it clear to me how strong were their aspirations after the boundless and glorious west."’*’ It was not unusual, in the light of the vast migratory movement of the nineteenth century, that xonericans who traveled in Germany found themselves objects of curiosity and were flattered by the admiration of the common people. The ante-bellum travelers commented frequently upon the frienoly hospitality of the German people. "I find, indeed,” wrote one, '‘that Germans take great pleasure in everything connected with America end that they consider 2 it a favored lano.'* Another said that he had found in traveling in the primitive parts of Germany that "however rude their knowledge may be of his country, the simple name cf an American is a better opener of the heart*s hospitality of the people than even the pux-se.” Another maintained that at first he was taken for an Englishman and treated with some disaain. After* his nationality was really established, he gained the good will of the Germans.

^ Henry Fhilip Tappan, A Step from the New World to the Old and Back Again: With Thoughts on the Good and Evil of Both (frew York. 1852). II. 76. 2 Amory, The Wedding Journev» II, 839. ? 3 James Mason Hoppin, Notes of a Theological Student (uevj fork, 1854), p. 86. 44

"America," he said, " the land or freedom, and the new home of so many thousands of their countrymen is a theme of the liveliest interest of the German people."^ Yet, as the Civil *i/ar drew near in America and the Revolution of 1846 ended in dismal failure in Germany, the honeymoon of the American traveler in Germany was over. His nation was no longer regarded with unqualified favor. Even in 1833, after the revolutionary outbreaks in France and Germany of 1830, John Lothrop Eotley noted a divergence in t&ught and sentiment toward the United States between the German aristocracy and the German people. He wrote with mild disgust: Tne opinions in Germeny concerning America are singularly contradictory..•It is as impossible to persuade...the aristocracy that in the United States anything exists but democracy and demogogues as it is to convince the others, particularly those of the lowest and emigrating class, that they will not find the streets paved with dollai's and their pockets stuffed with banknotes as soon as they arrive in Wew York, that El Dorado of their expectations.^ The American controversy over slavery, which reached fever Vie at at mid-century, made many American travelers, especially those from the North, sensitive to criticism in

^ Henry Philip Tappan, A Step from the New World to the Old, and Back Again: With Thoughts on the Good and Evil of Both (New York. 1852). II. 16. & George William Curtis, ed., The Corresoondenee of John Lotiirop Eotlev (New York, 190oT, I, 42-43. 45 Germany. No longer was the American traveler universally greeted with enthusiasm and acclaim by European liberals. Americans met criticism of their political system Tor its limited liberties. Even in 1836, George Ticknor wrote that •*. .. all the leading papers throughout Germany, who repeat these reproaches against us in perfect good faith cause us to be set down for a good deal of humbug in oui* pretensions of freedom.'^ Criticism was especially forthcoming after 2 the European publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Another traveler wrote in a similar vein in 1851 when he described an a u s train army officer who "...was very minute in his inquiries relative to slavery in nmerica, end could not understand how we, professing so much sympathy for the nations of Europe who were struggling for their freedom, should yet hold millions in absolute subjection in our own 3 land." The only defense that this American could produce in reply to the criticism was that the existence of slavery 4 was more “a case of necessity than of option.” Another

^ Anna Eliot Ticknor, ed., The Life. Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor (London" 1376;, ij 480. 2 Ibid.. II, 190. 3 Henry Maney, Memories of the Water, or Strav Thoughts on a Long Stroll (Nashville, 1854), pp. 141-142. 4 Ibid. 46 writer maintained that when American slavery was discussed in Germany, she felt obliged to "blush and hide..* £herj •. .head. Some American travelers believed that Europeans really had no understanding of the problem. Motley claimed that the Germans seemed to feel that slavery could simply be eradicated by edict. They had no fundamental conception of the federal principle of the Jnited States* Another writer felt that the Germans showed little comprehension of it by assuming that the mere fact of its existence proved a support of the institution on the part of all 3 Americans* As the fifties drew to a close and the Civil Aar seemed imminent, the travelers felt that the criticism had become a real antagonism. In 1859, Henry Adams wrote from Germany, "America is much disliked now in Europe and no one will believe anything good of it.H^ Another writer described 5 Austria as Leing "very touchy" toward Americans*

Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 50. p Motley, Corres pondence. I, 191* 3 Brace, Home Life, p. 272* 4 W. C. Ford, ed., The Letters of Henrv Adams (Boston, 1930-36), I, 39* 3 Wight, Peoples and Countries, p. 64. 47 Yet ten years later, when the United States had successfully withstood its internal upheaval and cast off slavery, George Bancroft, the American Minister at Berlin, wrote a long reassuring letter to Elihu B. Washburne. he said the victory of the Union in the conflict had re­ established the faith of European liberals in the basic vitality and endurance of the Republic. Even the con­ servatives, he felt, were finally convinced that the United States had entered the world to stay. Politically, Europe regarded America as once again sound. The attempt eight years ago to dissolve the union encouraged once more those who regarded republicanism with skepticism. The suppression of the rebellion went beyond what most of the governments of Europe regarded as possible, and as a result, the confidence in the immense energy and durability of our insti­ tutions was firmly established, and by the abolition of slavery our republic became more and more endeared to the best men of Europe. Since I have been on this continent, I have watched the continual steady rise of this implicit trust in our ultimate success, and while in old times anything that appeared to go in amiss in America was looked upon as ominous of evil, it has now become the rule to take a bright view of seemingly unfox*tunate occurrences in our career and to take every unfavorable appearance with confidence in the ability of our people to surmount every difficulty.1 At least in regard to its fundamental political freedoms, American travelers no longer were sensitive to criticism after the conclusion of the Civil War.

Bancroft, Life and Letters« II, 221-822. 48 But slavery was not the only characteristic of American life that became the focal point of European criticism. The persistent claim that American society was vulgar, barbarous, even savage, wounded the pride of American travelers in Germany. It had been endurable in the sanguine, nationalistic optimism of the early nineteenth century, when the nation was small and Americans felt certain a superior culture would eventually be developed. But after the United States had proved her strength and established herself as a significant nation in the world, such criticism was the source of much discomfort for *onericans in Europe. In spite of the intensity of the slavery issue, it was, after all, a temporary object of attack. The criticism that America had a barbai'ous and vulgar civilization was less easily destroyed in that it rested, according to the travelers, upon a profound ignorance of actual conditions in America. "It is simply incredible," wrote a traveler of the eighties, "what profound ignorance exists about us."^ The nineteenth century travelers regarded this ignorance with quiet amusement, mild irritation, or out­ right scorn. The last sentiment became more pronounced in the post-Civil War travelers. It was little more than suprising to John Quincy Adams in 1797 that a German army

1 Parry, Life Among the Germans, p. 11. 49 off*icei* did not know the existence or the United States.1 The American nation was actually less than a decade old and an isolated corner or the world by eighteenth century standards or tx*ansportation and communication. But Motle:' expressed exasperation in the rirties when he maintained that no one in Europe really wanted to know the truth about 2 American conditions. Another writer or the seventies said that the erroneous conceptions or the United States in Germany made even an apathetic citizen rairly "bristle with patriotism. Examples or this ignorance about America by Europeans are legion in the travel literature. In the main, the German misconceptions or the United States were geographic, racial, and social. In spite or the German education system, German knowledge was sadly deiicient in regard to the size and location or the United States. Charles Sumner stated that he was asked ir the American nation was in the neighborhood of Odessa.4 Another traveler said that the

1 J. Q. Adams, Memoirs. I, 203. 2 Motley, Corresoondence. II, 189-190. 3 Blanche Willis TeuTTel, One Year Abroad (Boston, 1877), p. 18. 4 E. L. Pierce, ed.^Memoir and Letters or Charles Sumner (Boston, 1877-90), II, 124. 50 librarian in Strasburg, when told or the Philadelphia library which Benjamin Franklin helped found, replied, "Ah, yes; at Washington.Another writer said the Germans believed the terms "north" and "south" referred to North America and South America, one being free and the other being slave.2 And in 1867 William James wrote, “The pleasant spinster from Hamburg...drives me frantic by her endless talking about America, in the course of which she continually leaps without any warning from New York to Rio de Janeiro and then to Valparaiso. She has friends in each of these localities, and it is apparently a fixed conviction of hers that they take tea together every evening. Nor were the Germans any clearer about the racial and linguistic characteristics of the United States. The fact that both Negroes and Indians did actually exist in the western hemisphere seemed especially confusing. Although allowance must be maae for exaggeration for narrative effect, many Americans recorded the surprise the Germans

^ John Jay Smith, A Summer’s Jaunt Across the Water. Including Visits to England. Ireland. Scotland. France. Switzerland. Germany. Belgium, etc. (Philadelphia, 1846), I, 268. 2 J. R. Browne, American Family, p. 139. Henry James, ed., The Letters of William James (Boston, 1920), I, 89. 51 manifested on discovering that Americans were white and

could speak English."1 One writer even maintained that his landlady was amazed to learn that Americans did not eat p human flesh." James E. Angell related a rather amusing anecdote. He was invited to speak in his "native" tongue at a dinner given in Germany. The guests looked so curious and expectant that he was nonplused as to what to do. Then he arose and delivered a brief speech in what was known to schoolboys then as "Hog Latin" (now "Pig Latin"), which completely bewildered, but delighted, his audience.w

1 Taylor, Views A-Foot. p. 102; Clemens, A Tramp Abroad. I, 204-205; Mrs. C. F. Barlosius, Recollections of a Visit to England. France, end Germany 1862 and to Germany 1885 (Fredericksburg, Va., 1S87), p. 55: et al. It would be unwise to overstress this point. In i:he light of the large number of Americans traveling in Germany, it would seem that people in the most frequented areas should have been familiar enough with the American traveler. The same writer cited aLove (Barlosius ), who x-elated the surprise of Germans at finding Americans white, later in her narrative described meeting a Negro with a traveling show, who said that he had made a great deal of money at first, but Negroes had become such a commonplace that he was no longer a curiosity. (Earlosius, Recollections« p. 104). The traveling shows might have accounted for some German misconceptions about Americans simply for the purpose of attracting patrons by the grotesque and unusual. There is at least one example of a travel narrative by a Negro. (See Bibliographical Note ). And writers did occasionally complain over* the fawning manner of German business men which would indicate that they were familiar enough with Americans. Charles Dudley Warner, Sauntei^ings ^Eoston, 1892), p. 8 6 . ^ Edward Everett Hale and Susan Hale, A Family Flight through France. Germany. Norway and Switzerland (Boston, 1888), p. 161. ^ James Burrill Angell, Reminiscences (New York, 1912), pp. 97-96. 52

Americans listed all kinds or inaccurate notions that

Germans had about America. Longfellow said that one of the

professor's wives at Heidelberg believed American ladies "sat with their feet out the window."'*' Eayard Taylor met

an emigrating bauer who was worried because he had heard 2 one had to drink beer standing up in America. Another tx*aveler stated that Germans believed American children

"were not required to obey their parents" but were free to come and go as they pleased any time of the day or night. Lincoln Steffens wrote that at Leipzig in 1891 he was considered the "crazy American" because he took a bath every day.^ But it was not these small facts about social customs that annoyed American travelers in Europe as muca as the accepted conclusion based upon them that Americans lacked any sort of refinement or cultural appreciation. "Tney are under the impression in Germany," wrote one traveler, "that there is no politeness or ceremony of any kind in

Samuel Longfellow, ed. , Tne Lite of xienrv h ads worth Longfellow with Extracts from his Journals and Correspondence (Boston, 1886), I, 219. o ^ Taylor, at Home and Abroad, first Series, p. 70. 3 Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 259. ^ Lincoln Steffens, The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens (Hew York, 1951), p. 147. 53

1 i - America." Another said, "It is not so much his a German*sj want oi correct knowledge that is amusing, as the entire self-satisfaction with which he compares the civilization p in Germany with the barbarism of America." They maintained again and again that the German picture of American civi­ lization was completely inaccurate. One traveler said that Germans believed Americans were completely material- 3 istic, while Germans were predominantly idealistic. Another complained that her German friends believed that because she was an American, she had a "passionate devotion"

A to machinery.^ An American music student stated that one of her teachers in Berlin had a violent prejudice against Americans because he believed that they were utterly without 5 musical talent. Another was irritated because one of his German friends always talked as if America had no theatres g and no opera. Another said that the Americans who were 7 well-known in Prussia were men of science.

^ Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 259. 2 J. R. Browne, American -Family, p. 138. ^ Taylor, At Home and Abroad. First Series, p. 461.

4 Teuffel, One Year, p. 91.

5 Fay, Music-Study, p. 170. g Frank Stockton, Person«r1 1 v Conducted (New York, 1890), p. 229. 7 Brace, Home Life, p. 2 62. 54 All of this implied and stated criticism of American civilization probably would not have bothered the American traveler if he nad not been conscious of an element of truth in it* It has already been pointed out earlier in the chapter that one of the primary motives of American travelers in Europe was the enrichment of their individual cultural development* They studied in the universities. They visited the art galleries. They attended the opera ana the theatre. They toured the Cathedrals and the public buildings. And, if possible, they savored the leisurely, settled life in a European city. Such activity was a frank admission, by deed if not by word, that even they considered American culture weaker in the arts than its European neighbors. It was this basic fact that made the American traveler angry at the German exaggerations and ignorance, he was defensive under critical attack in the materialistic post-Civil War era. He might conclude at the end of his trip that America was the best place to live, but he was aware that America did not provide the cultural advantages of Europe. He was as certain of his devotion to nis own nation as the American had been early in the century, but he was sharply aware that political superiority did not constitute the whole of life. The Germany tn&t the early nineteenth century American had i'oreseen as risiny out of the political decay of Europe

iii fellowship wit-i the Jnited Etates had been realized instead by a nation that the *unerican traveler of the late nineteenth century could not understand nor admire. In order to clarify this aisappointment, it is necessary to uiscover* the irnare of Germany in trie American mind. 56 The American Traveler's Image of Germany

The early interest of nineteenth century Americans in Germany was derived from an intellectual movement with

political ramifications. a s indicated in the *Introduction," New England literary scholars were stimulated by Madame

de Stael's D 1 Allemagne and reports of intensive study and activity during the several preceding generations of German thought and literature. The intellectual creativity of tIi€ Germans became the source of many cultux-al forces when imported into the United States. It sparked the new literary movement of romanticisrn through the influence of writers like Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Lessing, and Freiligrath. The transcendentalism of Kant and Fichte and Schleiermacher and of the English trailscendentalists captured American thought, and the influence of German universities upon American scholars transported a thorough and exhaustive scholarsnip into the United States. Although the interest in Germany was intellectually centered, the political developments in Germany during the Napoleonic period were important in opening a channel of communication between the United States and Germany (although Germany was in no sense yet a nation) by the fact that both states had shared a similar experience. For nationalism and liberalism, the twin seeds of the 57 French Revolution, had captured Germany, too. After the humiliating defeat of Prussian forces at Jena in 1806 and the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 in which Prussia bowed to the victorious French Emperor, a new spirit arose in Prussia and Germany. Under the leadership of von Stein and Hardenburg and stimulated by the nationalism in German literature, Prussia began a drive toward a united German national state to throw off the control of Napoleon and to liberalize the governments of the small German states.^ Serfdom was abolished, the array was reorganized to enforce the system of national conscription, and attempts were made to provide the ordinary individual with a stake in national existence. The American felt a sense of kinshixj with this experience of a Protestant nation attempting to get out from under the yoke of foreign domination and to work toward unification of independent sovereign states. Had not the United States had her own Revolution and her own period of Confederation? Van VVyck Brooks maintained in discussing the reception of the English version of Madame de Sta£l*s book in Boston that Bostonians were ’*... predisposed to like the book, since everyone knew that Napoleon did not like it. He had suppressed the book

Valentin, The German People, pp. 335-350. 58

and driven kaaaiue de Stael out of i* rtnce. . . . Everyone knew

tnat a thing must be good, whether a university or a book,

ir the Bonapartes disliked it.""*- This early .t-unerican

interest in Germany manifested itself in '.Villiam Ellery

Charming who begged a friend in German;/ to continue

sketches of the German people, for whom Charming felt a 2 genuine love and kinship*

Tne travelers themselves frequently took pains to

describe the nationalist movement in Prussia and Germany

during the War of Liberation. Ticknor wrote in 1816:

"...when the rest of Germany lay in abject subjection,

the ministrv of Prussia conceived anu announced the

determination of id ai r i n g up in moral strength v/hat they

had lost in physical." Prussian leaders founaed the

University of Berlin "...from which e free spirit had

gone forth that has wrought like a fever through all 4 uermany." Another* traveler, in speaking of the reaction

after the Congress of Vienna, wrote glowingly of the patriotic ardor displayed by German youth in the war and

Brooks, Flowering of kew England, pp. 75-76. 2 william deni\y Channing, ea. , Lenoir of G'iliiam Ellery Ch&nniim with Extracts from liis Correspondence ana Manuscripts (Eoston, 1860), III, 307.

^ Ticknor, Letters. I, 1C2.

^ Ibid., p. 103. 59

said that love oi* liberty was prevalent among them. 1 One traveler described the birth of the German spirit in glowing terms in 1840: "How they rose, like a giant from sleep, against trench usurpation and with Leipsic paid kapoleon for- Jena. ...The sceptered weakling, whose capitals had been a prey to the conqueror, became suddenly strong with the strength of wrath-swollen multitudes. This wrath is ever reaay to be rekindled. Its next outburst will not g be against foreign oppressors." This background of American interest in the curiosity about Germany is essential for any real understanding of the attitudes of American travelers in Germany as they took direction early in the century. An ima^e of Germany had been created in the American mind that was not to be easily eradicated. Althougn the political aspects of this image are discussed at greater length in the chapter dealing with political life, the intellectualized focus of the image must be recognized in dealing with the general view

of Germany held by American travelers until after 1870. Throughout the nineteenth century, this focus upon the German intellect and culture, as well as the national spirit, was an important item in the comment of American

1 Henry Edwin Gwignt, Travels in North of Germany in 1885-26. (n. p., n . p. d. ), p. 31. r> * George Henry Calvert, Scenes and Thoughts in Europe. First Series, (Boston, 1840), pp. 69-70. travelers in Germany. It tied in, first, with the enthusiasm of Americans for the future of their own culture and, second, witn their dissatisfaction with that culture later in the century. Ticknor wrote of the Germans in 1816 from Gbttingen, "They are a people who, in forty years, have created to themselves a literature such as no other nation ever created in two centuries; and they are a people who, at tnis moment, have more mental activity than any other people existing."'*' -another traveler wrote, "*Ve are accustomea to regard the Germans as a heavy-moulded race, as peculiax'ly •physical' in their character... But were the German classics to Le found at our public institutions, which I vex*y much doubt, Cambridge libx*ary being excepted, and coula we read the language sufficiently to understand thorn, we should soon discover that the term physical was muca mox-e applicable to ourselves, than to them." A former American Ilinistex* at the Court of Prussia wrote in 1847, "It is the peculiax* chax’actex*istic of German civili­ zation, in every stage of its progress, that the intellectual has ever sux*passed the social development; the cultux*e. of the mind has ever outstx*ipped the social and political

■*■ Ticknox*, Letters. I, IPO c Dwight, Travels, p. 76. 61

conditions oi' the nation. - 1 One traveler exploded enthusiastically when confronted with Germany's cultural heritage and homely charm, "Oh, I am delighted with Germany, the land oi* poetry and sourkrout the birthplace of Schiller and Goethe the seat of learning the country p of superstition, romance and Westphalia hams." This same respect for the intellectualized image of Germany is apparent in the comment of the American travelers on German cities, and most of the cities had their American devotees. Said one American traveler of Berlin, "... Berlin's greatness is intellectual; and in this relation, no city on the globe shines with a more splendid light. 3 It is the northern iiiecca of scholars...." Joseph Green Cogswell agreed that it. held "first plE.ce" for science 4 end literature. another writer emphasized the extensive musical advantages of a residence in Berlin. *" William Dean Howells wrote reverently of Weimar: "Goethe end Schiller

1 Henry Wheaton, "The Progress and Prospects of Germany," A Discourse before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Brown University (Boston. 1847), 7~. p Matthew Flourney Ward, Letters from Tnree Continents. By M.. The Arkansas Correspondent of the -Louisville Journal (Hew fork, 1C51 ), p. 36. Hoppin, Hotes. p. 12. 4 Cogswell, Life. p. 2£4. 5 Gaze, A Leisurely Journey, pp. 95-96. lived there...and literature was glorified as much there as war is elsewhere.Writers extoled the beauties of Munich, calling it an ’’Earthly Paradise” for lovers of art. This list of examples citea from the travel narratives could be pressea much fux-ther at t,he x-isk of wearying the reaaer. iienry Adams recounted the world-wide aamix*ation for German thought that flourished in the nineteenth centux*y in nis remarkable Education. "The literary woidLd then agreea,” he wrote, “that truth survived in Germany alone, and Carlyle, Matthew Arnold, Renan, Emerson, with scores of popular followers, taught the German faith.... German thought, method, honesty, and even taste, became the standards of scholarship.” The other aspect of the German image in the American mind, the sense of kinship through a common experience and a similax* natux*e, revealed itself in the similarity American travelers saw in German cities and the Geivnan people to what they knew at home. This was px*obably due in part to the belief that the German struggle against Napoleon was

^ Milarea nowells, ed., Life in Letters of William Dean Howells (New Yoi\k, 1923*7^ II, 79. p C. C. Fulton, Europe Viewed through American Spectacles (Philadelphia, 1874), p. 109; Mrs. Louise Chandler Boulton, Random Rftmtal «« (Boston, 1881), p. 282. Henry «uams, The Education of Henrv Adams (Boston, 1918), pp. 61-62. 63 like the American struggle against Great £x*itain and in part to the fact that a large number of Germans had settled in America. One traveler oi* 1825 wrote, "The northern Germans resemble us much more than any other nation on the continent. Like us they are Protestants, and they show i.n their con­ versation tnat deptn of feeling, whicn naturally arises fi*om a religion addressed equally to tne intellect ana the heart...another writer said, "I like Germany and the Germans, and this feeling grows upon me more and more. I do not feel a stranger in a strange land, but am in every respect as perfectly and as happily at home as I ever have

r been out of Virginia.nCj William James agreed that Germany resembled the United States when he wrote, "Germany is, I find, as a whole...very nearly related to our country, ana the German nature ana ours so akin in fundamental qualities, that to come here is not much of an experience.... to one of our race all that is peculiar in Germany is mental, and that Germany can be brought to us . . . . " 3 Berlin reminded 4 the travelex-s of an American city, even to the point where Unter den Linden looked to one traveler like Commonwealth

^ Dwight, Travels. 170. p ^ Edward Southey Joynes, Old Letters of a Student in Germany 1856-57 (Columbia, S.C., 1 316 ), pi 57. W. James, Letters. I, 105. ^ Dwight, Travels. p. 114. 64 Avenue in Boston.^" There was nothing "romantic, picturesque, p or even £orei^n'* about living in Dresden, and Stuttgart ana x rankf ox*t, among othex* cities, seemed to have nmeriean 3 characteristics. Even Bonn, according to one traveler, a. was the German counterpart of hew Haven. _ Yet, in placing these comments against others from the travel narratives, a certain inconsistency of opinion is glaringly apparent. They represent statements of a very general nature and were common, this writer believes, because they added substance to the “image" of Germany in the Amei*ican mind. hhen the traveler became more specific in his narrative, discussing the people, the customs, the political institutions, even the culture, he found striking differences between his homeland and Germany. Such general statements do not express in airy comprehensive way the Amex-ican's attitude toward Germany gained through actual contact and experience with the people and the count i*y in travel. Rather, such statements seem to repr*esent the early

Ballou, Foot-Prints of Travel, p. £21. o W. James, Letters, I, 8 6 . 3 Henry Ruggles, Germany Seen without Spectacles. Random Sketches of Various Bub.iects Penned from Different Standpoints in the Empire (Boston. 1885), p~. 95: Carrie Butler Thwing; an Appreciation by Friends together with Extracts from her Journal of a Tour in Suijoue (Cleveland, 189 j), p. 106. A Benjamin Silliman, A Visit to Eur-ope in 1651 (new York, 1854), II, 507. directional stimulus ol“ intex'est in and enthusiasm for Germany, of the picture of Germany created in the American mind. Such a picture was by no means a static thing and, as will later appear, the nineteenth centui’y witnessed the gradual breaking down of that picture ana its reconstruction on an entirely different basis than that of the magnificence of German cultural development or a sense of kinship for the German people ana the German nation. For, as the American traveler discovered, actual travel experience revealea a new side of Germany that the image did not encompass and the changes in the nature of the German state in the nineteenth century seemea destined to destroy the image.

It is difficult to assess the overall impression of Germany that nmerican travelers received through the experience of travel. Feelings were frequently mixed and the different German states elicited different reactions. But on the whole, in spite of American antagonism toward some German institutions and in spite of some travelers' actual dislike of Germany and the Gex*mans, until appx-oxi- mately 1870, the American traveler liked the country and the people. It is significant in the travel literature, nowever, that American feeling x*ax*ely got beyond merely "liking" Germany. It did not reach any intensity of passion, as the American sentiment fox* Rome ox- Paris or 66 even England frequently aid. It was not colorea Dy nostalgic ana poignant associat Lon- It was more an opinion, in fact, than a sentiment too prosaic, too reasoned, too matter- of-fact to ever boruer on the rhapsoaic. A good many comments on areas in Germany appear on the printed page to be rataer flat statements of appreciation, empty of any spontaneous burst of emotion. This seems to be indicative of tne rather limited affection with which the American travelers actually viewed Germany. Even Cogswell, who had loved the Germany of Goethe and Gbttingen as a student in 1816, wrote in 1887* "...I am very free to say that my second residence in Germany has quite weaned me from that strong attachment to it which my first one gave me."l Charles Cumner went so far as to say that he was "more thai* satisfied" witn the "prevailing intelligence p and civilization" of Germany. Another writer described Dusseldorf as a "model German town, solid, dull, devoted to art and music." Another described Berlin as a "sombre, massive city, lacking tne bright and brilliant aspect of 4 Paris." Another wrote, after seeing Berlin, "I saw it

1 Cogswell, L i f e , p. 102. p Sumner, Memoir and Letters. II, 571. ^ Henry W. Bellows, The Ola Aorld in Its hew Fact: Impression of Europe in 1867-68 (hew York, 1869), l"i75• 4 Fulton, Europe Viewed, p. 15. 67

without emotion: I left it without regret."'*' Munich was

described as "clean, well-paved, and neatly laid out.**2 Some writers went mucu farther and revealed an active dislike of Germany. Henx*y Adams wrote of Berlin in 1659, "I tell you...Boston's a little place, but damn me if it isn't preferable to this cursed hole." And Henry James, never attracted by Germany, wrote: To me this hasty anu most partial glimpse of Germany has been most satisfactory; it has cleared from my mind the last mists of uncertainty and assured me that I can never hope to become an unworthiest adoptive grandchild of the fatherland. It is well to listen to the voice of the spirit, to cease hair­ splitting and treat one's self to a good square antipathy when It is so very sympathetic! I may "cultivate" mine away, but it has given me a week's wholesome nourishment. 4 5 ^ « - The rather weak sentiments^Ainex*ican travelers displayed toward Germany become even more pronounced when they ax-e contrasted with the enthusiasm shown fox* the more romantic spots of Germany like Vienna, Nurembui*g, ana the Rhine*

1 Junius Henry Browne, Sights and Sensations in Europe. Sketches of Travel and Adventure in England. France. Spain, Germany, etc*, With an Account of Places and Persons Prominent in the Franco-German War (Hartford. 1 8 7 1 ) 7 P« 313* ^ James Samuel Stone, From Fx-ankfort to I/Iunich (Philadelphia, 1895), p. 45. 3 Henry Adams, Letters. I, 97.

4 H. James, Letters. I, 33. Vienna was called “the Paris of Germany, 1,1 a "truly... 2 imperial city," "a beautiful city in some respects the most beautiful I have ever seen. Another writer wrote that Vienna was "truly magnificent, grand, and unique...the connecting link between the civilization of Europe and the barbaris splendors of the Oriental world. Another traveler maintained that she was never in a city 5 "where laughing was so universal" as Vienna. Kuremburg appealed to the travelers for its great age and picturesque- 6 ness. And the Rhine likewise received acclaim from Americans even though most of them felt that the Hudson equaled it in beauty. One typical description of the Rhine states: Even the coldest and most unimaginative traveller, as his eye glances from the rapid curi*eat to the varied magnificence of its borders the wide-spread, fertile

John n. Corson, Loiterings in Europe: or Sketches of Travel in France. Belgium. Sv/itzeriand. Italy. Austria. Frussia. Great Britain, ana Ireland C^ew York. 184ci), p . 224.

2 Meriwether, Tramp Trip, p. 160. a ^ Thurlow Weed, Letters from Europe ana tne West Indies 184o-lo52 (Albany, 1866), p. 588. 4 Oct avia »»alton Le Vert, Louvenirs of Travel (mobile, 1857), II, p. 253. ^ Marie J. Pitman ^Margery Deane, pseud.] ^ European Breezes (Boston, 1882), p. 1 2 2 .

6 d, James, Letters, I, 32. 69 plains, the vine years, here gently sloping, there clinging to an almost precipitous rock the ancient towns, with their massive walls and white watch- towers and, chiefly, the ruined castles, at every turn crowning the picturesque mountains between which the glorious river is often compressed, connected, as they are, with the richest romance of history and legend can hardly fail to sympathize with the heart­ felt love, t he almost veneration, with which the Germans regard what they poetically call Father or Kin^: Hhine.-^ However, such general and detached statements as those quoted above are valueless without a more detailed survey of the American traveler's reaction to specific objects anu institutions of German life. It is necessary, there­ fore, to examine in some detail the American reaction to the German people, social life, and customs, German culture, ana German political life and institutions.

^ VVilliam Combs Dana, A Transatlantic Tour (Philadelphia, 1845), p. 227. CHAPTER I I I

THE GERMAN PEOPLE, CUETOHb, AHD o GCIa L LIFE

Tae American traveler round the nature or the German people and tne customs that aTTected their relationships with one another a curious bundle or contradictions. He round them, lirst oi* all, human, as tne American himselT was, with qualities to be both applaudea and despised. The kindness shown by the German lor the American and the charming simplicity and civility of manners completely disarmed the traveler. He was prepared to embrace German life with aiTection until he perceived that a strain or brutality accompanied the politeness. The mnerican con- i'ronteu German brutality in the treatment accorded women in Germany and in the custom or dueling in the German universities. Rerinement in tne arts and a px*opensity to intellectual endeavor went hand in hand, the traveler discovered, with a national taste ror coarse physical pleasure like ever-present "beer, tobacco, and sauerkraut" ’which so orten repelleu hnericans. calm German nature that at times comforted the restless American, at other times vexed him by its stoic acceptance or conditions tn&t seemed unendurable to an American. A standardized and accepted coue or manners that the American was inclined 71 to admire because it supplied the German with the security ol lowing,exactly what one should and shouldn't do in social relationships, became, in some -nstances, a cumber­ some and incomprehensible business. Tne American traveler dia not try to reconcile these inconsistencies. Indeed, he probably would have been the first to admit that the German people, by virtue of their humanity, were no more inconsistent and contx*adictory in character* ana behavior than any other people. If he thought about it at all, the American traveler would probably have agreed with Harriet Beecher Stowe in simply recognizing tnat the inconsistencies were there. That traveler wrote: "These Germans seem an odd race, a mixture of clay and spirit what with their beer arinki^g and smoking, and their slow, stolid ways, you would think them perfectly earthly; but axi ethereal fire is all the while working in them, and bursting out in most unexpected little jets of poetry and sentiment, like blossoms on a cactus."^ In any case, the American retained a certain detached objectivity as he drifted from one German experience to another, noting customs and characteristn’cs of the people. He was, by turns, wistful, indignant, perplexed, or

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands (Boston, 1654), II, 37 C. admiring. He could pick and choose as he would, saying, "I like German politeness" or "I don't like Germany brutality." But the j*mericen lost this detachment when he regarded the socitl life cl* the German nation. Tne overwhelming impression that the travel narratives reveal is that the traveler was detached only in relationship to specific customs or parti culax* characteristics of the Germans. Underlying nis comment upon German social life is a complete bewiloerment that the Germans, with a society founded upon inconsistencies in the German nature and customs and injustices and inequalities in social relation­ ships, seemed, nevertheless, to possess an enjoyment of, ano satisfaction with, life that the mnei-ican felt his own society lacked. In no way was the inadequacy of the social fabric in America brought home more forcibly to -Americans theii by their contacts with German social life. It was as if the American askeu himself, when he witnessed their contented conviviality and their ability at savoring the passing moment, "Why do these Germans, who shouldn't, seem to enjoy life more than Americans at home, who should?" Such a devastating question thrust the traveler into a sea of uoubt about his own society and provided the basic theme for much comment of the American travelers recorded in the third section of this chapter. 73

Tne trcveler uia not attempt to ansn.er tjie question

toot nagged at him. In a good, many cases, no doubt, he

forgot it when he x*eJoined his family and frienas at home

in the United Ltates. iievertaeiess, it seems related to tne

growinr sciiool of social criticism in the late nineteenth

century American life in tne work of henry James, henry nuams,

Lark Twain, zxo.we.rd r e ,..lamy, ana henry George. It seems

similarly related to the whole cnorus of social protest

that arose in tlie twentieth century in the work of Iherv/ood nnderscn, Sinclair Lewis, Theodore Dreiser, Stephen. Craae, and Idvvax'd -riiiigton LoLi.is on.

although no material provides a ric-ier source for dis coveria:; tne reaction of -an or leans to Germany than tne discussions of the people, tie customs, ana tne sociar life of tne nation found in the travel narratives, they are nara t . disentangle from one nnotner. n custom also nas ireplications in the social life of the people ana is an expression of tneir nature just as mucn as it is a custom. Nevertheless, for purposes of clarity and organ:.zation, this analysis arbitrarily attempts to uisent angle thee, at the risk of omission or repetition.

The Nature of the German People

It is difficult to find, in the travel narratives of mnerican travelers in Germany, a genuine, spontaneous, 74 enthusiastic response toward tne nature of the German people. Oxi the wnole, with reservations and modifications, they liked them much as they likea Germany as © whole. But it iias, again, a sentiment of* the head rather than the heart. The German people lacked the romantic charm that captivated the emotions and the imagination of* the American traveler. As Willi am Jaines put it, "The German character is without mountains or valleys; its favorite food is roast veal; and in other lines it prei'ers whatever may be the analogue thereof all which gives life here a certain flatness to the high-tunea nmerican taste."^ Except for a certain heartiness that betokened physical stability, the American traveler did not find the appeai-axice of the German people very appealing. They seemed to the traveler* created much more for* function than for* ornament. Except for criticism of the visible charms of German women, reactions to the physical attributes of the German people were not very pronounced in the narratives. A traveler in 1334-35 remarked that general health and robustxxess of the population were noticeable, and he credited it to their

"frugal and regular habits of life . " 2 A traveler in 1887

W. James, Letters, I, 136.

2 Valentine iiott, Travels in Europe and the East in the Years 1854. *35. *36. *37. *8 8 . '89. »40. and *41: Em bra cing Observations Made during a Tour through Great 7b felt this apparent physical heartiness was a good indication of the age-long stamina of the German people.^- Yet anotht-r traveler of 13o6 felt that the common people appeared more down-trodden than robust* He said they were rather "of p unaer stature, their skin shriveled and seared.- The height of Prussian men attracted some attention, although one young American woman felt this quality could never reaeern their arrogance and insolence on the streets. William James thought the Saxons were a particularly 4 "short ana ill-favored race." Some of tne travelers felt that the prevalence of beer- drinking in Germany did not enhance tne physical attractive­ ness of the German people. One traveler remarked that the "bloatea faces and bleared eyes of the masses" betrayed their indulgence.' Another disliked the effect of the

•Britain. Ireland. France. Belgium. Holland. Prussia. Saxony. Bohemia. Austria. Bavaria. Swlt zexdLana. Lombax»d. Italy, and the Near East (New York. 18427] p. 82. Wight, Peoples and Countries, p. 117. £ Wilbur Fisk, Travels in Europe: viz. in Bn^land. Ireland. Scotland. Italy. Switzerland. Lombard. Italv. and the M a r East (Hew York. 1 842T, p. 57.

3 Dwight, Travels, p. 119; Fay, huslc Studv. p. 57. ^ W. James, Betters. I, 87. ^ Ballou, Foot Prints of Travel, p. 311. 76 "distended paunch'* and ruddiness upon the German personal appearance.^- Yet William James believed that even this quality, tne result of quantities of beer, produced a

certain substantial appeax*ance. He wrote1 "The apothegm, 'a fat man consequently a good man' has much truth in it. The Germans come out strong on their abdomens--even when they are vast in capacity, one feels that they are of mighty powerful construction, and play a much weightier part in the economy of man than with us, affording a p massive immovable background to the consciousness..." In regard to German women, the American traveler was far more explicit and extensive in his comments. Universally, the American traveler discussea the appearance of German women, ana, almost universally, he found them startlingly unattractive. He wrote: "...either our ideas of what constitutes beauty differ from those of Germans, or else their women are ,~enex*ally ill-fox-med, with irregular features and homely." The Americans complained that German women wex-e too coarse of skin and too broad of beam to measure up to the American standax*ds of delicate,

Meriwether, Tramp Trip, p. 146.

2 v;. James, Letters. I, 1 0 0 . ^ Smith, Summer *s Jaunt, I, 254. feminine grace, "'walking parallelograms in petticoats," one wx-itex- called them. "They looked," he continued, "as if they had been made by the rule, like Dutch ships, and then cut off in lengths to suit. Like theix* vessels, too, tnev ax*e solid and substantial, made x*ather to cax-rv than to go. Julian xlawthorne described them in equally un- flattei'ing terms: "Massive are their legs as the banyan- x*oot; theix* hips are as the bows of a three-decker. Backs have they like derricks; rough hands like pile-drivers. . . " 2 Other wx-iters termed them variously "plump roly-polies" with "ix*x*egular features and muddy complexions"^ ox*

"stx*ong and 6 aunt, sun-dried and coarse."^ One tx-avelex* claimed their faces were destitute of any expression, the distinctive feature of Fx-encn women. Another- said he had seen more plain-looking females in Dx*esden than he believed it was possible to collect in one city. And Henry Adams

1 W. W. Wight, Dore'C p. 220.

2 Hawthorne, Saxon Studies, pp. 23-2 6 . ° F ^y» Music Study, p. 80.

4 Mary Sands Griffin, Impressions of Germany, by an American Lady (Dresden, 1866), p"I 131.

° Dwight, Ti*avels. p. 5. r H. Adams, Letters. I, 39. 76 maintained that German women reminded him, unpleasantly,

of their "aiet and want of soap and water. " 1 The fraulein of the German states became even less appealing to the American traveler when iie compared her with her lovelier German cousin, the Austrian, and particu­ larly the Viennese, girl. One traveler wrote that the latter was very attractive. "They are Germans, but handsomer than western Germans with a remarkably clear complexion," he said. anotrier noted that the Austrian woman was 3 slighter, more delicate, and gayei', and another felt she exerted a good aeal more control in society. "They are stroiig-aanded, 11 he said, "and can take care of themselves anu of their husbands also when necessary. In any case, tne structure of the Austrian woman suited American taste far better, and according to one American traveler of 1680,

1 J. H. B. Latrobe, Hints for Six months in Europe: Bein^ the Programme of _a Tour through Pax*ts of France. Italy. Austria. Saxony. Prussia, the Tyrol. Switzerland. Ho1 1 and. Bq lgium. England, and Scotland in 1866 (Philadelphia, 1869 ), p.* 195. ^ Leslie A. White, ed., Extracts from the European Journal of Lewis ii. fcorgan (Publication of the Rochester Historical Society, Part II ), XVI, 31o-319. ^ Charles Eaward Bolton, Travels in Europe and America (wew Yorb, 1903), p. 843. ^ Fulton, Europe Viewed, pp. 89-90. 79 Prussian women envied the slenderness of the Austrian

woman and resented her sense or style and fashion. 1 Yet a few travelers mitigated their criticism of the physical charms of German women. No writer called them beautiful, but Bayard Taylor admired their robustness which liberated them from the numerous afflictions that assailed the nineteenth century American beauty. rie said they were sometimes as "fresh as wild roses," •. hile admitting they were too coarse ana aeavy to be considered g beautiful. Another found the blonde German peasant quite goodlooking, and another felt city belles might well envy 4 tne rosy complexion of the German peasant girl. One traveler admitted that she had found them more refinea- 5 looking than expected. Even the heavy labor that was woman's lot in Germany did not horrify all tne tx*avelers. One writer of 1883 felt that field laborers in Germany were healthier and had less reason to be pitied than mill 6 girls in dirty industrial centers in the Gnited States.

1 Pitman, European Breezes, pp. 109-110. Taylor, At dome and Abroad, First Series, p. 32 o. 3 Maney, Memories over the m'ater, p. 114. 4 Barlosius, Recollections. p. 53. w Amory, Wedding Journey. II, p. 192. Helen aunt Jackson, Glimpses of Three Coasts (Boston, 1883), p. 373. 80 Another argued that too much emphasis had been placeu on the German woman carrying her burdens on her head--that it was a woman's privilege to choose the method of carrying doing a man's work in the fields (dealt with more extensively later in the chapter) excited a rather romantic eloquence in one young American woman traveling in the middle of the century: •••but for my life I cannot find it in my heart to pity you. Full chested, vigorously limbed, strong backed, firm footed, ye defy storm ana hardship, and rejoice in the sternest labor; ye are never troubled by fine stomachic sensibilities; ye know nothing of the toil of the brain, of tne conflicts of the spirit, of the tragic sorrows of tne heart, of the exquisite agonies of tne nerves. You are robust, and plump, and bounteously blooded, bearing yourselves in your brown bloom, with the unconscious insolence of rustic health. You have simple habits, few wants, and believing hearts; so plant and reap, hoe and spade, carry burdens, yoke yourselves with donkeys, if you will, reverence the priest, serve your beer-drinking and meerschaum- smoking master. It is your mission, from which I should think twice ere I would call you to a condition in which every beautiful taste is insatiable longixig, every exquisite refinement but a subtilized pain, every high-wrought passion the exhaustless source of suffer­ ing. 2 Althougn the American's reaction to the German appearance was not favorable on the whole, the German

Teuffel, One Year inbroad, p. 15. Sarah Jane Lippincott [Grace Greenwood, pseud.J daas and Mishaps of a Tour in aurooe (Boston, 1854), pp. 416-417. 61 character received more commendation. Americans found the German temperament a comfortable one to be around, and if it lacked the excitement of peoples of more volatile and mercurial emotions, it compensated for this deficiency in a satisfying steadiness. Gne traveler said the German character was the reverse of the French thinking more of "the matter than the manner of things," apt to be tiresome but sure to be substantial.^ another felt the Germans lacked the appeal of the Italians, but their contentment ana passiveness v.ere more comfortable and reassuring. 2 Even the poorer classes impressed the traveler's with their happy natures and their contentment, and one writer described the German peasant as combining "the prudence of «ew England" wita the "generous hospitality of Virginia." Yet sometimes, as in the case of one American girl, this evenness of disposition became montonous and irritating. "Germans cannot understand blueness," she complained. "They are never blue themselves, and they expect you always to preserve your equanimity. . .Moods are utterly incomprehensible to them. They feel just the same every day in the year. " 4

1 ;V. ,V. Wright, Dord'l p. 276. ^ Lippincott, Haps and itiishaus, p. 414.

Orvill ilorwitz, Brushwood Picked U p on the Continent; or Last Summer's Trip to the Old World CPhiladelphia. 1855), p. 278.

4 Fay, Music Etudv. p. 85. 82 To some Americans, this quality or steadfastness in the German character congealed too often into a rather austere sobriety. The German was eternally serious. One traveler remarked that almost no enthusiasm was displayed at the horse races in Germany: "... everytning was sober, matter of fact, as if the people had come out to witness a disagreeable spectacle, or one that they could take no interest in. " 1 Another writer claimed that, in spite of the numerous German feasts and celebrations, "...the people drink, and sing, and dance, the year in and the year out, without so much noise and hurrah as is to be seen on one Fourth of July."^ Other American travelers noticed that Germans took even their pleasure too gravely and did not 3 laugh enough. As one writer put it, "...the German would as soon think of putting aside his gravity as of putting off nis coat in public."^ Another commented that "Though tney may fly to pleasure, as a fancied medicine for the ills of life, they selaom give way to that spontaneous

1 Ruggles, Geimnanv without Spectacles, p. 61.

2 Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 286. 3 Pitman, European Breezes, p. 47; Helen Juaria Fiske hunt Jackson, Bits of Travel (Boston, 1895 ), p. 1 0 1 . ^ George Copway, Running Sketches of i»len and Places in England. France, and Germany bv and Indian Chief (A'ew York, 1856), p. 239. 83 gaiete du coeur, which requires no support from adventitious excitement.""^ This quality in the Germans was more evident to the American traveler when he was confronted with the

“contented g&yety" 2 and the "lightness of life" 3 of the Austrians. Such restrained spirit was wearing on Americans. Furthermore, Americans writhed under the stolid patience of tne German when his calm disposition accepted conditions that the American felt were unendurable. To the nervous energy of the American, the quiet acceptance that sootned his restless spirit became, frequently, a source of ii*ri- tation rather than a solace. One writer believed that "a German in the Fatherland is constitutionally opposed to doing anything in a hurry. " 4 Another pointed out that an obstacle to travel like the bx*idge of boats across the Rhine would not have been tolerated for a year in the R United States, but the Germans moved slowly. Motley calleu them "the most phlegmatic specimens of mankind tnat exist.

H. ii. mright, Desultory Reminiscences. p. 74. p Corson, Loiterings in Europe, p. 225.

3 Brace, Home Life, pp. 392-39u.

4 Fulton, Europe Viewed, pp. 34-35. 5 James Freeman Clarke, Eleven 'weeks in Europe: and Vnhat May Be Seen in That Time~~(Eoston. 1852), 239.

6 Motley, Correspondence. I, 2 2 . 5 4 Sometimes the American Tell into the leisurely pace of German life anu liveci according to the '‘slow German fates."^ But more fx*equently, the travelers expressed their irritation with the patience of the people. One writer of 1850 said that it was a "daily marvel" to him 2 and the most astonishing feature of German life. Another wrote: "...everything is done quietly, no one seems in a hurry, no one ever seems impatient, and yet I confess it, my Aneriean blood shoots up in wonder sometimes now people can be so slow." Another said that although life was easier at this pace, "it became iiifuriating to the American, born and brea to hurry. " 4 miother agreed when she wrote, "The patience is something beyond tne comprehension of the nraerican mind."'"' In yet another way, the American disapproveu of the German quality of stolidity. They felt it leu to a too deeply-rooted conservatism. It made a population too docile, too respectful of authority, too easy to govern.

^ Charles Dudley Warner, Saunterings (Boston, 1892), p. 8 G. o George Henry Calvert, Scenes and Thoughts in Bur one, Secoiid Series (Hew York, 184G), p. 15. a Griffin, Impressions of Germany, pp. 57-38. ^ Pitman, European Breezes, p. 54. ~ Parry, Life. Among the Germans, p. 48. 85 As early as 18£5, this weakness was recognized by one traveler*, ana he felt it was incompatible with a democratic government which demanded an expression of the feelings and ideas of the population. This slowness to move made the Germans, the American traveler felt, congenitally "conservative, prejudiced, bound by custom, slaves to the past, respecters p of form." Another writer noticed their cautious and con­ servative nature. "whatever is done is done for generations," he wrote. 0 One traveler felt that authoritarian control of the government had increased this instinctive reluctance to change. "He is a box*n free thinker, " wrote this traveler, "but his institutioiis and tne watchful eye of the omniscient police forever keep the lid shut a own upon his genuine sentiments; he is slow to anger and unrivaled in his reverence for* authority. " 4 A much earlier writer (1S47) agreed when he said, "German enthusiasm, though deep seated, is patient and enduring, and breaks out in violent acts 5 only at long intervals and on urgent provocation." Some

1 Dwight, Travels. p. 133. o ^ Parry, Life Among the Germans, p. 313.

3 J. P.. Browne, American family, p. 34.

4 Ray btannard Baker, Seen in Germany (New York, 1909), p. 4 6 . c; Wheaton, "Frogress ana Prospects," p. 51. 86 writex-s felt tnat the rather inconsistent wild anu rowdy life of German students at the univex*sities was a means of releasing young animal x*ebelliousness so tnat the student would settle down in after life to become a "calm, cautious, apathetic citizen."^ On the other hand, and in spite of the extensive comment by the traveler's on the calm temperament of the Germans, they v:ex-e frequently embarx*assed by the utter lack of s elf-restraint that a German displayed in expressions of sentiment. "Wnere aim how did we get tne idea that the Germans are a stolid phlegmatic race?" mark Twain demanded. "In truth, they ax*e widely removed from that. They are warm-hearted, emotional, impulsive, enthusiastic, their tears come at the mildest touch, and it is not hard to move them to laughter. They are the very children of impulse. -»e are cold and self-contained, compared to the Germans. They hug and kiss and cry and oance anu sing; and where we use one loving, petting expression, they pour out a score.Yet the emotionalism he referred to was demonstx-ated principally in intimate social relation­ ships rather than in the larger contact of the German in

^ Dwight, Travels. pp. 50-56; Taylox*, Views A-Foot. p. 3.59. p ' Max*k Twain, A Tramp Abroaa. I, 87. 8 7 relation to his social environment. Other writers agreed that in personal relationships with family and friends, the Germans exhibited a warm emotionalism. One writer said that although they were not easily agitated, they were people of intense feelinganother said they displayed

almost "patriarchal hospitality11 in the way they discussed px-ivate matters. Lotley called them "the most affectionate and...the most enthusiastic people on earth'* in these 3 circumstances, and Longfellow exlaimed, "The Germans have 4 so much poetry in their natures ana in their lives.1* One writer expressed her reaction tu this German characteristic with less enthusiasm: "For us, born under other habits, we cannot understand tnis public demonstration of feelings whicn the heart everywhere holds so sacred.... But here, 5 all events of life are maae matters of public sympathy.1' iost American travelers were impressed with German politeness. One traveler remarked that they were the most polite people in western Europe. ’ As early as 1822,

^ Dwight, Travels» p. 162.

c' Brace, Home Life, p. 6 8 . 3 Liotley, C orresponaence. I, 30.

Longfellow, Life, I, 253.

5 Griffin, Impressions of Germany, p. 6 6 .

6 Joel Cook, A nolidav Tour through Europe (Philadelphia, 16SS), pT 203. 83 YVashington Irving x*ecorded his pleasure at their great kindness to strangers. Throughout the century, this subject elicited mucn appreciative comment from the iiinerican tx*avelers in Germany, with special attention to the Gex*man

custom of bov.ing to strangers. 1 In fact, Max-k Twain said this custom fi*equently astonished wnericans. “The bow stai'tles a stx-ariger out of his self-possession the fix*st time it occurs," he wx^ote, “and he is likely to fall over a chair or sometning, in his embarrassment, but it pleases 2 him nevertheless." Furthermore, Americans detected a fundamental humanity in this politeness wnicn pleased them immensely. They felt it grew out of tne genuine friendliness ana innate kindness

in the Gerirans. +>s one tx-avelei* expx-essed it: There is a deep-seated humanity in the courtesy of the Germans. They always seem to be feeling a gentle pressure from the cord that interlaces them with their species. They do not wait, as Schiller says, till you "freely invite" to "friendily C=icJ7 stx*etch you a hand," but the hand is instinctively stx*etched out and the kind deed x*eady to follow it.

1 Irving, Life. II, 93-96; hotley, Letters. I, 43; Taylor, Views A-Foot. p. 120; V; Robert hosea, Glimpses ox" Europe: or Rotes Drawn at Oirht (Cincinnati, 1859), p. £79; lirs. James Anthony Eames, The Budget Closed (Boston, 1860), p. 2 0 1 ; W. James, Letters. I, 1 0 1 ; Alfred E. Lee, European D p v s ana >vavs (Philadelphia. 1890), p. 76; et al. p Mark Twain, a Tramp Aox^oad. I, p. 166. 89 This suavity is not limited to any rank or condition. It extends all the way down 1'rom the prince to the poorest peasant. 1 One traveler ielt that it was mucn more human and kind than p the superficial graciousness of the French. Another hoped that by tnis American contact with German politeness "... in the course of time, those savage traits of character derived from long experience of savage life and want of culture in civilized society will disappear, and the Americans will become as polished a race as the Germans." Anotner traveler agreed that even among the plain people, the degi*ee of refinement and sentiment that expressed itself in German politeness was chax-ming.^ Yet for all the friendliness and politeness mentioned in the narratives, it would not oe accurate to intimate that the American found ail Germans congenial and pleasant. There are a number of decided statements to the contrary effect. The students in the universities found mingling with the Germans difficult and unattractive. Bancroft said the people of Gottingen were "cold and unsocial." he claimed that they were "too fond of writing books and

x Catherine li. Sedgwick, Letters from Abx^oad to Kindred at home (New York, loti ), pp. 177-178. c harner, Saunterjugs, p. 115.

^ J. R. Browne, American Fp.mllv. p. 136. ^ Pitman, European Breezes, p. 95. 90 too incapable c-f conversing, having more than enough of

courtesy, and almost nothing of actual hospitality. ” 1 •Villi am James declared that Eerlin was a "bleak and un­ friendly place." he claimed that people shifted so "between friendliness and a drill sergeant's formal politeness?' one P never knew where he stood with them." Another American student said that the Germans at tne univex*sities Kept mainly to themselves, drinking beer, smoking pipes, said fighting auels activities whica did not attract the american. Apparently, the code of manners existing for German society could become beta too formal and complicated as well as too rough and rowdy for the casual, restrained American student. The quality that fell most frequently under the critical

e2/e of the American traveler, and the one to wnich he applied the most verbal condemnation, was what ne labeled a sort of German conceit. It amounted to refusal to countenance another's opinion and a strenuous enthusiasm for the Fatherland to the exclusion of the possible virtue of all other nationalities. Of course, the comments became much

1 Bancroft, Letters. I, 85. ^ VV. James, Letters. I, p. 122. ^ George ’»*. Magee, eu. , An American Student Abroad: from the Letters of Magee 1554-1903 (Philadelphia,1932), p. 62. 91 thicker in the travel narratives during and after the unification of Germany under Prussia. But even as early as 1620, George Bancroft wrote a letter to a friend describing a German with whom he hack been on a walking tour: "he is," wrote Bancroft, "as all young Germans, full of the glories of his country, will talk to you of the feudal times and uays of chivalry, can make you confess, if talking you dumb is making you confess, that the Deutschen are t bove all nations on earth, that the Deutschen heroes, ana men, and ladies, and armies ax*e the best in the universe, and is ready to cnallenge any man who denies that Deutsche literature excels that cf all peoples ana times. Gther writers repeated this criticism later on. In 1859, Bayard Taylor also discussed this characteristic of the German. They were, he granted, remarkably courteous, but they lacked the element of courtesy which enabled them to listen respectfully to another person's ideas. "Being a people of abstract ideas," he wrote, "and much given to that species of theorizing which breeds intellectual egotism, they lack a proper consideration for the ideas and opinions of ethers. Hence, a mixed conversation very

Bancroft, Let ters, I, 7o. 92 often assumes the character of an argumentative combat* I have frequently heard facts denied, because they conflicted witn some pet theory. As an American and a Republican, I was constantly liable to be assailea by those who advocated the raonarcnial system not in the way of courteous inquiry, but direct attack. 1,1 Poultney Bigelow reported that as a schoolboy at Bonn, he liked his English schoolmates but regarded Prussian boys as of "another species in the human family. After the German success in the Pranco-Prussian ;

1 Taylor, At xiome and Abroad. Fix*st Series, p. 461. 2 Poultney B ig el o v., Prussian Memories 1864-1914 (i.ew York, 1911 ), pp. 2-4. This volume should be regarded with skepticism. Although Bigelow Spent a good many years prior* to 1900 in Germany, this book was written and published after the outbreak of xVox*ld War I. It is, there­ fore, liable to a bias under sentiments engendered i~y the war. Bigelow may have remembered more in this autobiographical work than actually took place half a century earlier. ° J. ri. Browne, Scenes and Sensations. p. 317. 93 without parallel” among the Prussians.^* Other writers of the eighties, too, commented upon the aggressive assurance O of the Prussians ana the Germans.'"' This, then, is the picture of the German character in the nineteenth century as American travelers drew it in their narratives. The German was neither all good nor all bad, the Americans seemed to conclude. He was good-natured, kind, ana friendly, but he could also appear to be lethargic, formal and self-atsured. Moreover, the American revealed many more of his conceptions of the nature of the German people in his discussions of nis contact with the customs and the social life of Germany.

German Customs

German customs presented to the American traveler a curious mixture that both appalled and delighted him. The traveler might devote pages in his narrative to his contempt for the treatment of German women only to burst into rapturous pleasure over the simple celebrations and happy nature of Gex*many family life. lie might agree with one

Motley, Corres pondence, II, p. £89.

2 Gaze, Leisurely Journey, p. 91; Jesse Milton Emerson, European Glimpses and Glances (new York, 1389), pp. 113-113. traveler that German felicity seemed to embrace "beer, pipes, and music" 1 the first two of which seemed too coarsely earthy for American admiration, but in the next breath he would applaud the joyous cultivation of gardens in Germany and the German’s genuine love of nature. 2 Thus, i/i the ledger that American travelers wrote up on German national customs, there were both a debit and a credit side On the debit side, no custom received r.ore American condemnation than the position of women in German society. It is a curious fact that Americans, who carved a civi­ lization out of a savage and primitive wilderness ana whose women sometimes submitted to the gx*ossest physical hard­ ships, should place the fair sex on a much higher rung on the ladder of human eminence than the Germans. Yet, such indeed was the case, if one may judge by the reaction of a/nerica/i travelers to the heavy labox* allotted to women in Germany. as one writer wrote in indignation, "Females could never have been intended for such employments, and thus to enslave them is a disgrace to any civilized nation.

1 h. u. 'Aright, Desultory -Reminiscences. p. 61.

2 Ibid. 3 Hiestand, Travels in Germany, p. 128. 95 Most Americans firmly believed that Gei*many's failure to produce beautiful and charming women could be credited to the inferior position granted to women in derraan society* Even in the upper strata of society, most Americans dis­ approved the background status of women. One writer said that women took very little part in table conversation, anu that a woman’s opinion on any subject was neither sought aor listened to at tent ively.J* Another- traveler attested to the vulgarity and rudeness with whicn women were treated in the street by men ana felt this indicated a fundamental lack of respect for women in German society* another wrote, "In the United States,the commonest boor will step asiae to let a female pass. Here the woman steps * aside to let the man pass." One women writer "thanked the good God... £her) .. .destiny was cast in a land where woman was cherished as the 1 better* portion of creation, ' loved 4 and cared for even in old age as well as youth." another female tx*aveler of the eighties chafed at this treatment of her sex in Gex*many but felt that, in spite of woman's menial position in society, the German girl was a novice

^ Brace, Home Life, p. 194.

2 Mox-gan, Exti*acts from Journal, pp. 335-536. ^ J. R. Browne, American Family, p. 43. ^ Le Vert, Souvenirs of Travex. I, 18£. 96 at taking care of herself in the world compared to an American girl."^ She complained that not only did women accept the position accorded them, but they perpetrated this class syt tern by refusing to "lower themselves1* to do some activities taat a resourceful American woman took for granted** 2 As for tiie German peasant woman, Anerican travelers were unstinting in their criticism of a society that degraded women to the level of beasts of burden. It offended the American sense of gallantry, and page after page in the travel narratives was devoted to descriptions of tne German peasant woman unloading wagons of wood, carrying bricks and buckets of mortar,^ harnessed with a 5 dog to a cart drawing garden produce, and working in the fields. No travelers of either sex applauded this system.

^ Parry, Life Among the Germans. pp. 142-159.

2 I b M - 3 horace Greeley, Glances at Europe in a Series of Letters from Great Britain. France. Italy. Switzerland, etc.. During: the Summer of 1851 Including Notices of the Great Exhibition, or World's Fair (New York, n. p.d. ), p7 263.

4 Ballou, Foot Prints of Travel, pp. 310-311. 5 John Insley Elair, Foreign Letters (Blairstown, N. J. , 1833), p. 29.

6 Samuel Topi iff, Letters from Abroad .in the Years 1823-1829 (Boston, 1906T] p. 115. 3 7 It reminded some travelers of the institution of slavery in the south. Idark Twain noted with distaste that even age was no exemption from heavy labor, " the older the woman the stronger she is apparently. " 2 One American traveler wrote with vehemence: ” 1 would not li^e to be a German peasant-woman. I would much prefer to be a German horse, for horses are well treated and well fed....Women, however, receive none of these kind attentions and con­ siderations at the hands of the male portion of the community.... What the camel is to the Arab, woman is to the German. Sne is made to bear the heavy loads and be the working slave of ner master." Anotner custom which seemed indicative of the brutality of _ife in Germany was dueling at the universities. The traditional duel, fought by heavily padded contestants and seldom fatal in results, received frequent rebukes from the American traveler. It v;as a custom utterly beyond his comprehension. He did not care for the German students of the universities, and he did not understand the sort of life the German student led. "The German students," wrote

1 Herbert E. Adams, The Life and Writings of Jared Soarks (Boston, 1693), II, 56; Le Vert, Souvenirs of Travel, p. 221*

2 Twain, A ^ramo Abroad. I, 126. ^ Ruggles, Germany without Spectacles.o. 119. kotley in mild despair, "are certainly an original and peculiar race of beings, and can be compareu to nothing."-1' To George Bancroft, they were any tiling but genteel. "I believed never to have seen any of my fellow neings so rough, uncivilized, and without cultivation," he wrote. "Tney are young, and therefore wild and noisy live chiefly among themselves, without mixing in society, and are therefore careless in this deportment, awkward and 2 slovenly." The duels were fought between members of rival societies in the universities. In the nationalism of the early century, they had nad faint political overtones, when it was popular to oe a young man tinged with liberalism and patx-iotism-- mild Jacobinism. But after the excitement of the Jena Conventioxi of the Burschenschaft and the assassination of Kotzebue by a student, the governments of Gexunany clamped down on them. They were, thex'eafter, organized purely on the basis of the various Gex*man states and principalities and devoted their time to dueling, drinking, cai-ousing, and wearing colored caps to indicate membership. It has already been noted that American travelers traced some of the German conservatism to the license

^ kotley, Goitrespondence, I, 24.

2 Bancroft, Letters. I, 59. 99 all owed German students at the universities as a means of* letting off youthful rebellious steam. One writer believed that the governments of Germany permitted the continuance of the duels, although they were technically illegal, as a means of directing the energetic young men into fighting eaca other, rather tnan letting them become interested in liberalism which might lead to fighting with the gover-n- ments.^ a s another writer put it, "The desp>ctic govern­ ments of the continent have made the discovery tiiat a man's bx-ain must let off, sooner or latex*, a certain quantity of tne gas of insubox*dination; ana by encouraging the openi.ig of the bluster-valves during college life, tiiey find that the stuff for patx-iotism -works pi*etty well off while the beard is foi-owiug, leaving the gi-aduating scholars with a suxfeit of vaporing, x»eady to shave and become orderly suujects." but one tx*avelex- saw another reason for the existence of the clubs and the duels* he said that the "daily and houx-ly presence of the military" contributed t~< the dueling spix-it and fostex^ed an enthusiasm fox* swoi*d skill. 3

Dwight, Travels. p. 90. ^ Nathaniel P. Willis, Hural betters and Other Records of Thoughts at Leisure (Detx*oit, 1859"), pi 28b. ^ Walter Channing, A Physician's Vacation: ox- a Summer in burone (Boston, 1856), p. 599. 1 0 0 What puzzled Americans particularly was the curious line of demarcation between the duel fox* purposes of honoi* and the duel to destroy another life. Student duels were primarily designed to do nothing more than inflict facial wounds on one's opponent, a sort of badge of honor, with­ out doing permanent injury. This seemed quite silly to practical Americans. They could see no value in such a sport. kotley assured his mother that there was no chance of his returning home disfigured. If an American was challenged, he had the right of cnoosing his weapons, ana since an American cnose pistols 01* rifles, and the Germans had an aversion to gun powder, an American rax*ely was challenged.Another writer was impx-essed by the strange code whicn px*ohibited permanent damage but allowed such savagery. And hasty assux*ed his reacers that the duel was not "a remarkably sanguinary affair.rt Yet the tx*avelers felt the custom was an ugly and brutal one. One traveler said that he had gained a nev; respect for champions of the ring; j.n the United States. Bismarck showed the scars of his student duels end had been made

ifiotley, Cori*esnondence. I, 29.

2 C. M. Kirkland, Holidays Abroad: or Europe from the 'West (hew York, 1849), pp. 227-228. ^ Locke, hasbv in Exile, p. 627. 1 0 1 a prince by the Emperor. By the same token, the United States could make one oi‘ its boxing heroes a member of

tne Cabinet.^ To many mnerican travelers imbued with a rising

temperance movement of the nineteenth century, the German consumption of alcoholic beverages was commonly puzzling ana disconcerting. nrierictns were visibly astonished, in their narratives, at trie German capacity for beer, and a

good many travelers commented, sometimes with distress, 2 on the insatiable German appetite for wine and beer. George Eancroft confided to his mother that sometimes, even on Sunua}^, the ladies put rum in their tea. Another writer concluded that the only thing that stopped the German /t in nis drinking was physical limitation. And of ,iis first trip to Germany in 1844, Bayard Taylor wrote, " *Ve had all been infected by the temperance revival, which set on foot by the Baltimore Washingtonians had swept over the United States. vVe might have tasted wine as small children, but

^ Ruggles, Germany without Spectacles, p. 24. 2 Charlotte B. Bronson, The Letters of Charlotte Brinckerhoff Bronson written during Her Wedding Uournev in Europe in 183o with Her Husband. Frederick Bronson, and his Miece Caroline Hurray, to Her ivlother. Mrs. James P. Brinckerhoff (Cambridge. Privately printed, 1928 J, II, 297; Ruggles, Germany without Spectacles, p. 111.

3 Bancroft, Letters. I, 53-54. 4 ✓ »v. /». wi'ight, Dox-e, p. 249. 102 its flavor had teen wholly i‘ox*gotten, ana we lookea upon the beverage as a milaer sort or poison. <«hen, taerefore, we saw every man witn nis bottle 01* Rhenish, we were inexpressibly shocked; still more so, when the servant asked us (in English) what wine we should take."^ On the other hand, Americans were bewildered by the

1‘act that drunkenness was uncommon in Germany, aJ. though one traveler in 1814 maintained that society had de- generated ■ m . the wars ana drunkenness prevailed, 2 and another called it "very frequent" in 1820,^ most travelers were surprised at the slight extent of it in the nineteenth century. "If in -runerica we had the pure wine and sound beer of Germany," concluded on writer, "we snoula have as little drunkenness here as there. ^ Another wx*iter felt that 5 liquor only increased German conviviality. One traveler remarked that tempex-ance societies seemed totally un- 0 necessary, and another said that the promotion of

Taylor, At Home and Abroad. Fii*st Series, pp. 31-82. 2 renjamin Seebohn, eu. , ilemoirs of the Life and Gospel Labours of Stephen Grellet (Philadelphia, I860), I, 297. 3 Dwight, Travels, p. 27. ^ vV.ignt, Peoples and Countries, p. 103. ^ Bellows, Old .

1 Tappan, A Step. II, 82. 2 Calvert, Scenes and Thoughts. Secona Series, p. 54. ^ Horwitz, Brushwood, pp. 278-279. 4 Willis, Rural Letters, pp. 379-380. riorwitz, Brushwood, pp. 379-3

1 Joynes, Ola Letters, p. 27. 2 One of the things some travelers noted with con­ siderable aisiaste was the custom of manure piles in front of homes. Mark Twain was particularly conscious of this in the Black Forest and developed an ability to judge a man's eminence in the world by the size of the pile. "we became very familiar with the fertilizer in the Forest, " he wrote. "*Ve fell unconsciously into the habit of judging a man's station in life by this outward and eloquent sign. Sometimes we saia, 'Here is a poor devil, this is manifest.* .Vhen we saw a stately accumulation, we said, 'Here is a 105 to work represented to a greater or lesser degree the debit side of the ledger as fax* as American travelers and German customs were concerned. There was raucn to be said on the credit side as well. No custom delighted American travelers more than the German love of nature and the habit of incorporating that enjoy­ ment into the regular pattern of everyday living. Americans in the United States nad a natural continent at their disposal, but nature naa become a thing to be conquered and subdued and, if necessary, destroyed. It was a novel experience for the American traveler to see the German people cherishing their natural environment. In witnessing the German family happily enjoying its garden, the promenade., the public park, or the beer garden, the American paused in iis narrative, usually, to regard his own habits of life as v/ill appear more evident in the last section of this chapter. American travelers referred frequently to this German regard for nature. One traveler in 1834 remarked, "I have been much struck at the pains the Germans take to cultivate flowers the windows are often fitted with pots containing banker*. * «Vhen we encountex*ed a country seat surx*ounded by an Alpine pomp of manure, we said, 'Doubtless a Duke lives her«.Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad. I, 212-218. 106 every variety and have a beautiful effect passing thro' the streets. They seem lovers of nature and simple pleasure."'*' ■rtnother traveler noticed the decoration of railway stations O witn flower =ardens and felt it was a "charming feature."'0 another was surprised that the Germans, even the German children, seemed ^uite satisfied to see flowers growing. Americans, he said, had to touch, pick, and turn everything 3 they saw and in the ena destroy the beauty of the object. The reaaer sees the element of distrust of American values in the following comment by a traveler who admired the parks: "now often we regret we do not have parks with us 1 But there Qin America] they would be useless. In the hux*ry, the rush of our existence, we have no time to stop to aamire and be amused on the way upwards ana onwards to 4 tne captivating 'Paradise of Honey'." Another wrote, "<*nen will our countrymen and countrywomen learn true 5 wisdom in relation to life out of doors?" Still another traveler felt tnat the constant presence of flowers and gardens had a good influence on the German character. ^

^ Amory, Wedding Journev, II, 79. ^ Kirkland, Holidays Abroad, p. 2£3.

*—r ° Cnanning, A Physician's Vacation, pp. 129-130. 4 Le Vert, Souvenirs of Travel. II, 265. ^ Eames, A Budget Closed, p. 256.

John FIetcher Hurst, Life ana Literature in the Fatherland (Lew York, 1875), p7 72". 107 And one American traveler expressed the common sentiments or his fellow countrymen in Germany: low desirable such parks would be in our larger cities, affording to business men, toiling clerks, hard-working laborers, professional men who are bound to their local cares by steel bands, and by the stronger American intensity of soul, an opportunity daily to behold the calm, beautiful face of nature, to be shaueu by the greentLeaves, to be wet with the down- shaken dew, to see the grass springing and to hear the birds sing. All people must yield to the Germans in their healthy, ardent, cultured love of nature.^ Another custom that pleased the American traveler was the charming German facility for making a loving celebration out of small family dates and anniversaries. The German Christmas was, of course, famous, and Americans delighted in the joyous festivity of the holiaay in Germany. No farail;/ w&s too poor to have its little Christmas tree, the traveler noticed, ana its 'scanty store of candy, nuts, ana fruit, and the simple toys tnat the needy people will 3 pinch themselves otherwise to obtain.’* And this custom, also, to some travelers pointed up an emptiness of American existence. Americans might scoff at the German's cele­ bration of holidays and family celebrations, but one writer thought the;/ helped make life sweeter: ’*Our life, on the other hana, is too barren; we press continually forward,

^ Hoppin, Notes of a Student, p. 71. ^ Gaze, Leisurely Journey, p. 99. ^ Brace, Home Life, p. 226; Warner, Saunterings, p. lo2. 108 on a hard not, stony road, neglecting every tree that invites us t o rest awhile by the wayside. The German art of malting life a pleasure rather than an effort was reflected also in the German enthusiasm for music and dancing. The travelers said that it was as much a part of the life of ordinary people as the flowers and the parks. ’•Everything in Germany begins and ends with a dance," wrote one, "end the church celebrations ai*e not an exception.""" Another stated that Frussian officers danced superbly well for it was considered a part of their military training. Another noted the passionate devotion of Germans to music. "It finds its way everywnere," he declared. "There can be no joyous celebx'ation without it."4 These customs which the Americans admired in German life touch lightly on the surface of a whole area of admiration for the German people and German society. There were many customs that the American admired, but most of them revolved around the social life of the German people and must be examined in that connection.

^ Taylor, At Home and Abroad. First Series, p. 466. p Johnson, Feasant Life, p. 226. 3 _ Fay, Music Study, p. 30o. ^ H. h. Aright, Desultory reminiscences. p. 74. 109 German Social Life

No experience in Germany probed more deeply into hmeiican self-conscieusness than American experience with German social life. This is reflected throughout the narratives, in the American traveler's frank admiration fox- tne German's easy congeniality with fellow Germans, his envy of the German's skill at social intercourse, and his open suspicion that neither the conditions nor the actuality of this characteristic of German life could be duplicated in the Jnitea States. *is one traveler rioted, the Germans were essentially gregai-ious.1 They lived with each other and enjoyed it. The fact "chat most puzzled Americans about t nis social life was that it rested upou a clearly defined class structure that was repugnant to a republican from the United States. It did not rest on social equality. This was made perfectly obvious to the most careless traveler by the existence of so many titles in Germany, and the American disapproved of the system. One traveler said that he could not persuade the Germans that titles were not necessary to national happiness and successful social intercourse and concluded, "This love of titles is univex*sal

1 J. R. Browne, American Family, p. 19. 1 1 0 among the Germans. ^nether agreed that it was "difficult for the German mina to comprehend that we can be in good standing at home, unless we have some title prefixed, to 2 our names...* Another granted that there was "something grand about a long line of rulers from one family, 11 but, like most Americans, she felt there was "something much grander in the rise of worth and character into power." Another traveler noticed that the same love of titles 4 existed in Austria. Althougn Americans felt that the German royalty and nobility were particularly plain and simple in character, they aislikea the fact that the Germans seemea to submit willingly to the authority and discipline of tnis sharply- defined class system. Julian nawthorne wrote: "but the hanit of following authority and precedent in all concerns of life grows witn tnem. They will never feel quite safe about blowing their noses, until they have seen the written lav; concerning that ceremony, signed and sealed by the King, and countersigned by Bismarck."^1 Another traveler pointed

Dwight, Travels. p. 125. 2 darner, Saunterlngs. p. 115. ° Parry, Life Among the Germans, p. 135. 4 Furniss, The Old world, pp. 175-179. Hawthorne, Saxon Studies, p. ol. Ill out the pertinacity oi* German officials for fulfilling

11 Every jot and title" or regulations,1 and another believed that or all the Germans, the Prussians had the greatest weakness in this respect Tor authority. He expressed the American viewpoint when he wx*ote in 1825: "There is some­ thing in this reeling incomprehensible to an American, accustomed, as he is, to see talent and worth the passport

to success, ox* to 1'ame; something which reminds him of oriental servitude, and whicn makes him feel that if the Prussians are wox*thy of freedom, the day of theii- deliverance 2 is in the distant futurity." But the Amei'ieaxi ti'avelex* was furtner confused by the contented mingling of all classes. The class stx*uctux*e was clearly defined, but there seemed to be greater* freedom of intercourse between one group and another than between groups in the vague, ill-defined class system of ^maerica. One travelsr commented on the extensive mingling of the 3 upper classes with the common people, and another admix-ed it tc the extent that he felt it was superior to an unnatural and vague republicanism. He -wrote: Here, no icy, impenetrable barrier separates, as in Englanu, the aristocx*acy from the commonality; but

^ Emerson, European Glimpses, p. 50.

2 Dwight, Travels, pp. 117-118. ^ Corson, Loitexeings in Kui'o.je, p. 226. 1 1 2 all classes meet together unrestrained except by the pervading sense or propriety, whicn secure the noble, on the one hand, from impertinent iutrusion, and the artisan, on the other, from supercilious discourtesy. This feature of German society is exceedingly attractive. Distinction in rani-: is everywhere highly valued ana accurately defined; but it is not asserted in such a way as to give pain to those of humbler birth. ...Is not tills system, which freely gives to all their due, a better ana truer republicanism, than that which, denying all distinctions of rank, and boasting an equal:'.tv that never exists in nature, yet places the more ana less favored classes in mutual repulsion and antagonism? Genuine courtesy of manners, diffused through a nation, holding together its different classes by the common bond of human sympathy and frienaliness, exerts a far move potent influence in smoothing the rugged inequalities of life, than any naked assertation of democratic px*inciples, tenuing to no kindly results in the intercourse of society. The Germans possess not the political freedom whicn we boast; but they far sux-pass us in those minor courtesies, which make up so large a part of social enjoyment.

Another traveler was equally surprised at the frienaly mingling of groups in Germany. *tt home, she saiu, ner pride would have been shocked to sit next to a nursery maid or a peasant, but in Gex*niany, there was no such p. feeling. Another stated that at a dance, ladies and farm hands dancea together ana s ex*vent girls and gentlemen, lie recox-ded that a Bax*on saia to him, "Look hei*e, write home ana tell youx* folks of the ai*istocr-ats of Germany; you democrats woulo not uo that. " 0

**■ Dana, Transatlantic Tour, pp. 242-24b. O .maory, bedding Journey. II, 7d. ^ Magee, acnerlean Lf.udent. p. 146. 113 Furthermore, the American traveler would plead for a reform in this situation in vain, for he noticed that the underprivileged in rank did not seem to find the system disagreeable. They accepted their posit;on with equa­ nimity. One traveler said they possessed a "perfect blending of self-x*espect with deference, of freedom with courtesy," and he saw no instance of "cringing, servility, or* insolence. Another agreed that the common people of Germany snowed a "civil ana respectful" attitude toward 2 their superiors without any appearance of servility.

The American was particularly struck with the importance of the family in German social relationships. One writer, after observing German family life, felt American family life was mucn too stiff and formal. "There is not in all my memories, pictures so warm and glowing, as some of those families... where the look and language of affection were not blurred by that everlasting formalism and coldness and selfishness which hangs over our households." Horace Greeley felt the relationship restea on a courtesy and a genuine love for one another. 4 Another writer said he was

^ Sedgwick, Letters , I, 2 2 1 .

^ Litchell, notes from over the Sea. II, 6 b. 3 Brace, Home Life, p. 265.

4 Greeley, Glances at Europe, p. 266. 114 "charmed with their simple, unpretentious manner of living... mid, of course, the family played an important and v.onderful x-ole, to the American travelers, in the numerous feasts and 2 holidays of the German family. Opinion was divided somewhat in regard to the position of children in the family. Some writers commented upon the fondness which the Germans showed for the children of the *2, nation.^ One writer maintained that the Germans gave chii.aren a much more important status in the family circle 4 than did American homes. On the other hand, liawthorne believed tne cnildx-en were kept noticeably quiet ana inert 5 ana said that they were subjected too mucn to discipline. Another writer declax^ed, "Children are ti^ained to obey. Jnsubordinatxon in the family or the school is treated much the same as insubordination in the ar-my." But there was no division of opinion in regard to the family taking its pleasure togethex*. This completely charmed the Americans. The sight of a German father at

1 Hale, family flight. p. 165. ^ Teuffel, One Year Abroad, p. 245. ^ Lee, European Days and A ay s. pp. 86-87. ^ Hux-st, Life and Literature, p. 59; J. R. Bx*owne, ■timexican Family, p. 47. ^ Hawthoxvie, Saxon Studies, p. 51. ^ Lee, Buropean Days and Ways. p. 85. 115 a beer garden or In a park, reading his paper, his wife knitting beside him, and iis children playing at his feet seemed to tne Amei'ican ti-aveler to be a delightful and beneficial custom. David Ross Locke believed this showed tne unselfish character of the German in that he wanted his family to share his recreation wita him.^ Anotner traveler wrote, “At*ter spending an evening in the garden they will all get together, and go home singing, and it sounds beautiful in the stillness of the night.“ Other travelers also spoke of this happy family relationship that enabled Germans to play together. In fact, the wnole subject of recreation aroused the interest and observation of the American traveler. It was in this aspect of his life that the German seemed to enjoy himself more than the Amex*ican felt his countryman did. It was nere that tne American felt the greatest sense of loss witn his own civilization. One writer said, "One cannot help marveling how they afford so much time for merriment. 4 Another wrote, "In nothing does Europe

-*• Locke, hasbv in Exile, p. 635. p Barlosius, Recollections. p. 54.

Jackson, Bits of Travel, p. 1 0 1 ; Fitman, iuxouean Ereezes, p. 48.

4 Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 366. 116 show hep superiority to America so much as in the gayety oi“ her people after the toil of the uay is passed,... .all tiie flock preserve tnst heart, and delight in the friskiness of their early youth, while age, weariness, poverty, vainly seek to oppress them.Anotner was surprised at the joy of the Lrermaiis in that their pleasures seemed so in- 2 expensive, simple, and innocent. Ana Bayard Taylor thought Americans might profitably imitate the German customs, for American recreation, he felt, when it did arrive, took on a quality of excess.^ As one traveler put it, "They have found out nere what is aisbelieved in .rtjnerica, thar the world will continue to tui*n over once 4 m about twenty-four nours•..without their aid." After witnessing the German at his pleasure, the American traveler frequently reflected that the nervous energy and hurx*y that created America's superior political and material progress did not always provide a contentment, idotley found the "utter inanity" that formed the atmosphere of the average German life refreshing after the "noisy

Gilbert haven, The Pilgrim's Pallet: or Bcraos of Travel Gathered in England'. France, and Germany (^ew York, 1669 ), p". 389.

2 Tappan, A Step, II, 20.

3 Taylor, At Home and Abroad. Becond Beries, p. 496.

^ A'arner, Saunterings. p. 112. 1 1 7 spluttei'ing politics which constitute our vital elements. ” 1 Another traveler noticed that everyone in Germany seemed p happy and contented in a leisurely life* Wrote one American woman in Germany in the late sixties: "Or course it is a well-worn theme, but no one can live in this German land without longing to borrow some of its capacity for taking its ease ana infuse it into the veins of nervous, hurrying, restless America." But, althoug/i some writers felt that nmerica might copy this admirable feature of German life, they indicated in many statements that they were quite certain it was not as simple as tnat. The Germans, even the German peasant, seemed to possess a happiness and contentment that both cnarmea ana puzzled the American. Germans lackeu the material comforts of the poorest citizen in nineteenth century United States; they had no such opportunity for adding to their riches and their privileges as existed in

America; they were oppressed politically and prohibited from any real degree of participation in formulating the policies affecting their own destiny. ^.nu yet, one writer claimed in bewilderment, "...the hard-pressed German peasant,

1 Motley, Correspondence, I, 162* p Barlosius, Recollections. p. 1C1. ^ Teuffel, One Year Abroad, p. 57. 1 1 8 in his pent-up village, has a look of contentment and

caeeri'ulness that our people have not. " 1 another said, 'The uermans enjoy life under all circumstances, anu are a much happier people tnan we, who have far greater means p of Leing so." Still another wrote, "I cannot understand how the Continentalists get so mucu out of so little. Contentment is more a tiling of temperament, than circumstance, ana oar people have not the secret. .Ve make a great deal of noise, and are very extravagant and dei: onstrative in our pleasures, but after all, we are the most melancholy nation under the sun." Another said he did not see now a German could ever be content in the United States after living in Europe.^ another claimed that the German really understooa the philosophy of life raucn butter than Araeioi cans. Some traveler's concluded that the weakness in the structure of American life lay in its materialism. They felt that too much American life was more pretension that glittered but was not gold.^ As one traveler wrote at length: There is less senseless luxury, less vulgar ostentation, than we know, ana simple, frugal domestic life is a

^ Sedgwick, Letters. I, 164.

2 Taylor, Views A-Foot. p. 108. J . ii» nro\.ne, Sights and oensatrons. p. <316. 4 Hemstreet, Iconomical Tourist, p. 2 0 1 . 5 horwitz, Brushwood. p. 279.

6 Lee, Luropean Days and 1'avs . p. 83. 119 national characteristic of Germany. Our tendency is to the contrary. Man does not live by bread alone, and material life ought not to subordinate higher living. .Vitii all our practical tendencies, we ought to be able to combine the German theories of a simple, less laborious domestic life with our greater comfox’t, and yet afford oppox*tunity for higher culture, freedom from all absorbing lower cares, stx-ength fox* higher thoughts. 1 another traveler believed that if pleasant social relation­ ships and customs could be cultivated in American life, they would be useful in **counteracting that tendency to a sox*did materialism, which is one of our great nati onal dangers• It is particularly significant that the comments indicating an unfavorable contrast of nmerican social life with German social life stem priinax*ily from the second naif of thtr. nineteenth century. The majoi'ity of the later travel narx-stives revealed reflections of tnis sort. Throughout the century the American tx-aveler was critical of a great many Gex*man customs. but he frequently (and perhaps inconsistently) concluded that in spite of the many defects in German social life and in spite of the coarseness and inequalities of German customs, tne Gex*mau often seemed nappiei* and more contented than the Ajnericsn. In citing this idea, the American lost his usual detachment

Parry, Life among the Germans, p. 6 b. O ^ Stowe, Suiinv Memories, II, b61. 1 2 0 anu objectivity and revealed a certain dissatisfaction of his own culture. rie still granted the superior advantages oi‘ uis own country in regard to political rights, material coul'ox-ts, anu oppoi'tunity, but he was besieged with aoubts when he witnessed a characteristic of German social life that he felt his own nation lacked. Yet such comments seem more relevant in the context of' nmerican thought than in the context of German history. German existence was not quite so idyllic as many American travelers supposed. nt least, Germans were prepared in large numbers to pull up the roots of their German life and transport them to a new world. They seemed quite willing to trade a loss of contentment for the obvious advantages of life in the United States. But after* all the weighing and the balancing of the advantages and dis­ advantages of life in Amei*ica and life in Germany, the Amei*ican wondered if perhaps he had not lost something of the beauty of existence in his tremenaous political and economic gains. CHAPTER IV

CULTURE: EDUCATION, THE ARTE AND RELIGION

The Germany that the pilgrim from America longed to pay homage to was the Germany of the mind. As iudicated in an earlier chapter, many travelers went to Germany seeking the personal enrichment that the national atmosphere of Goethe, German scholarship, and German idealism was supposed to engender. The customs and character of the people interested him, and perhaps dispelled some of the romantic and intellectualized glamor forming a hazy aura around the American's image of Germany. But it was not primarily this side of German life that attracted him. Rather, it was the idea of a German glorification of the mind that drew the scholars to the universities and families like the J. Ross Brownes and the Edward Everett Hales to a year's residence in Germany.It was the Germany that Thomas Carlyle wrote of in "The Death of Goethe"

1 One authority called this the "prestige of the mind," He wrote: "By the prestige of the mind I mean that the value attached to thougnt as thought, to ideas as ideas, the estimate of their scope and potency, as elements of experi­ ence is extraordinarily high; and that the part wnich they in consequence have played in modern German civilization is extraordinarily high.' C. H. Herford, "The Intellectual and Literary History," Germany in the Nineteenth Century (Laiichester, 1912 ), p. 69. when he equ^tea the "higher literature of Germany” with the "higher literature of Europe.”'*’ Tne roots for Germany's nineteenth century eminence in intellectual and cultural achievement were part of the m ays.fi cent development of German literature, philosophy, ana music in the eighteenth century. Europe, and in consequence ^unerica, became conscious of Gex*man literature wnen the worit of Lessing, Klopstock, herder, Goethe, and Schillex- moved across national boundax-ies into the province of western civilization and when tne Romantic School of Richter*, fieck, and von Hardenburg infected English poets with the new ideas of the nature and function of poetry, beauty, and the individual. The world became conscious of German thought when Immanuel Kant's Critiuue of Pure Reason and Critique of Tractical Reason shook philosopnic cix*cles and when Germaxi transcendentalism captured the imagination of several generations in the nineteenth p ceiitury. The music of Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven establisnea Germany's reputation forever* in tnat branch of the arts.

^ Thomas Carlyle, "The Death of Goethe,” Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (Centenax-y Edition, London), II, dbO. ^ The historical background here is based on J. G. Robertson, "Literature in Germany,” Cambridge Modern History (Hew York, 1907), X, 3SB-41E; Herford, "The Intellectual and Literary History,” Germany in the nineteenth Century, p p . £ o-77• ir.3 Gradually, the interest ixx German scholarship, philosopny, ana literature penetrated the American consciousness. There v.!ere two routes of dissemination of Gex-many's burst of intellectual and artistic activity, one direct, the other indirect. First of till, the early scholar's in Germany brought back with them the principles and ideals of German scholarship. T'icknox- and Everett, fox- a time, joined tne uai*vai*d faculty. In lo29, Cogswell ano Bancroft set up the Round dill School at Nox-thampton which aimed at imitating some aspects of the German gymnasium. A d d e d to this wnex-ican importation of German ideas in learning and scholarship were the energies of two German political refugees fx*om the conservative reaction of the early 1820’s. Karl Kollen and Kaxd. Beck arrived in Ameihica in 1824, after being driving out of Germany for o theii* participation in the Bui'Schenshaften.g Beck became an instructor in Latin, first at Round Hill School and then

Germany was known in eighteenth-century America, of course, and German immigx-ants had established German language newspapers. These were not, however, motivated by the cultural impulse associated with Germany in the late eighteenth century. See Albert Berniiai'dt Faust, ”Ron-English Writings: German,” Cambridge history of Amex-ican Litex-atux>e (Kew York, 1921 ), IV, 572-590. ^ Amex-ican l.iterax*y histox-ical background cased on Samuel Lee holff, "Scholars,” Cambridge nistorv of American Litex'atux-e. IV, 444-491. 124 at Harvard, and Follen became the first instructor in the

Herman language at Harvard. 1 By the thirties and forties tne stream of immigrants fleeing from political oppression

in Germany increased, and they carried a familiarity with German culture to western United States when they settled

in Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri. 2 The indirect route of tne spread of German influence was through England. Transcendentalism came from Germany through Coleridge and Carlyle and, modified by indigenous -American characteristics and temperaments, swept through American thought like a . . 3 prairie fire. It is not surprising then that William Ellery Channing wrote enthusiastically of the Germans: "The grandest principle in our man's nature, the sense of the infinite, seems to be more developed in them, and

their writings express a deeper consciousness, a keener perception of the unity of the universe. This intellectual eminence of Germany was duly recognized and admired by the American traveler. Student after student bowed in deference to German profundity, to

1 Wolff, "Scholars," Cambridge xiistorv of American Literature. IV, p. 453. ~ Ibia., p. 451. 3 Vernon Louis fax*rington, LCain Currents in American Thought (New York, 1927), II, 382. 4 Channing, Lemoir. Ill, 307. 125 German thoroughness or scholarship, and to German facility for metaphysics. Ticknor marveled at the fifteen hour day of grueling study at G'dtt ingen. ^ Calvert wrote that knowledge was nowhere valued as highly as in Germany. "Lowhere," he saio, "are there so many men with empty pockets and full heads." Another student stated that "...in every branch of learning, speculation, and intel­ lectual culture, Germany is leaning the march of the 3 mind." William James described a class of scnolars common in Germany, but rare, he felt, in nmerica, "of men to whom learning nas become as natural as breathing."^ As might be expected, the American tx-aveler had a great deal to say about this aspect of German life. No part of the subject provoked more comment than German education, which the traveler saw as a concrete example of the "prestige of the mind" that constituted an important element of the American image of Germany. But the traveler clso gave recognition to the development of the arts and expressed a concern with the state of religion in Germany.

^ Ticknor, Letters. I, 76.

2 Calvert, First Years, p. 176.

3 Joynes, Old Letters, p. 37.

4 W. James, Letters. I, 110. 126 Education

Americans nave traditionally placed great faith in the power of universe 1 education to provide a solia basis for democracy by creating an enlightened ana intelligent electorate. This faith, related in pre-Civil War days to tne uelief in progress and the perfectibility of the individual, expi'essed itself concretely in the reform and expansion that characterized educational development in tne United States in the nineteenth century. The first half of the century witnessed a tremendous growth in colleges, particularly in the west. The Jniversity of Virginia and the University of Michigan, as well as other state uni­ versities, were founded in the first hall' of the nineteenth century.-* Experimental schools were established like Bronson Alcott's Temple School of the thirties and the Hound Hill School of Bancroft ana Cogswell. In the three aecades before the Civil War, colleges like Western Reserve, Oberlin, antioch, and nlbicn sprang up in the west, aore.ee Mann became the first Superintendent of Public Instruction in the State of Massachusetts, and the first teacher- p training schools opened their doors.

^ Elwood P. Cubberly, Public Education in the United States: A Study ana Interpretation of American Educational History (New York. 1934), p. 272.

^ Xbid., p. 269. 1 2 7 Americans nailea, naturally, the development of educational institutions in Germany and oeiieved this development would ultimately liberate Germany, following the pattern of the United States, from the despotism of unlimited monarchy. .»hen Germany failed to achieve this destiny, but maintained throughout the century a high level of educational development, American faith in education was severely tested. Thus, the German educational system was one factor that contributed heavily to American disappointment in the nineteenth century unification of Germany. Americans learned the bittex* lesson that a government of force and power could strengthen its control through, the agency of public education just, as efficiently as could a democx*atic government. The eai-ly nineteenth century reform in the German educational system was pait of the aeteiunined reformation of tne states of Germany in the years 1307-1814. Tne advocates of reform hoped to arouse some soi*t of respectable opposition to napoleon. The movement was led by Prussia, but it affecteu all the German states, for it primarily stx-engthened and invigorated the principles of state

"1 educatioii already widely accepted in Germany. School

Li. E. Sadler, "The history of Education,” Germany in the Nineteenth Century, pp. 108-109. 108 attenuance had been made compulsory in several of tne German states during the seventeenth ana eighteenth centuries, and schools ana universities uad been declarea state institutions in 17^4.^ The impact of scientific tnought nad created a considerable spirit ol' unmolested investigation to a large p extent m the German universities. The statesmen of Prussia who assisted at the rebirth of the German spirit hoped to continue the construction of a state system of education on this foundation. Training schools for teachers were established t;> raise teaching to a professiunal status, tne gymnasia were foundea to prepare capuole students for the universities, and tne University of rerlin was opened 3 in 1810 as a state institution. The American was naturally disposed to look with interest upon this movement. The state's acceptance of the respoxisitility for tiie education of its citizens was in line with the philosophy behind the Land Ordinance of 1785 whicr reserved some public lana for the support of 4 public education. It also concurred with Thomas Jefferson's

1 Sadler, Germany in the Nineteenth Century, p. 107. ^ Ibid., p. 108 ^ Ibid. . pp. 109-110. 4 The Land Ordinance of 1785 reaas, "There shall be reserved tne lot ho. 16, of every township, for the maintenance of public schools within saia township..." Samuel Eliot iorison, ed., Sources and Documents Illustrating 129

notions on tne necessity of public education of the '•natural aristocracy" which advocated the rounding of

elementary and seconaary schools at public expense, 1 In the light of this fact, it might be anticipated that educators composed a substantial segment of the Americans who traveled to Gei‘many in the nineteenth century. Aside from tne i»'ew England scholars and the more obvious names like hoi‘ace Mann ana Calvin Ellis Stowe, there were travelers like Henry Philip Tappan and James lurrill Angell, presidents of the University of Michigan, and Andrew Dickson •Vhite, president of Cornell University. As one American traveler expressed the American interest in education, "...the cry among us is still for schools, schools es- 2 tablished on a firm basis." This sentiment sent .Americans abroad to study German education. The conviction that the German educational system, particularly in Prussia, would eventually overthrow autocracy was expressed by many American travelers. One felt that though it was not liaelv to come soon, the future liberty of the people was assured if the excellent school

the American devolution 1764-1788 and the Formation of the Federal Constitution (Second Edition, Oxford, 19295, p^ 206. 1 Thomas ^efferson, Letter to John Aaams, October 26, 1816, Dillard Thorp, Merle Curti, and Carlos laker, eds., American Issues: the Social Record. I, 195. ^ Griffin, Impressions of Germany, p. 244. 130 system lasted fox- a cexitui'y.^ Another remarkea tnat Prussia aia indeed nave a military despotism. '’But,*' he wrote, " anothex* and itox-e powerful army is arising in Prussia; and its spreading tents are tne school houses of tne land. Px-ussia has established pex*haps the most perfect system of populax- education in the world. Another writer of 1839 was convinced that people so educated would never be content with a share in the economic life of the state that consisted of potatoes and black bread.^ One traveler expressed surprise at the educational progi*ess of Austria. "Perhaps the visitox" from the north," he claimed, "who has expected to fina a land of despotism and darkness, is sui*pi*ised to aiscovex- that the common people are the most cax-efully educated of any country in Eux^ope, except Prussia. . ..The system comprehends px*imax*y and real school, gymnasia, and normal establishments fox* teachers, and is very similar to that of Prussia. . . " 4 Even as late as 1851, one traveler felt that the educated people of Oex’many would eventually liberalize theii- government by a struggle greater than any

1 Dwight, Travels. p. 252. 2 Orville Dewey, The Old dorld and the hew: or a Journal of Reflections and Observations Made on a Tour of Europe (New York. 1836), T~, 176.

3 Sedgwick, Letters from Abroad. I, 171.

4 Corson, Loitex*ings in Eui-oce. p. 229. 1 3 1 that preceded it."^ Another believeu that Germany had succeeded in conquering the French in 1871 because their superior euucation enabled them to "act more efficiently and intelligently. Nor did the american traveler flinch at conceding that the German school system and the German university were superior to nis own nation's. He frankly stated that the balance in tnis case swung in favor of Germany. "No government," maintained Bancroft, "knows so well how to create Universities and high schools as the Prussian." Horace kann ranked Prussia, Saxony, and the southwestern German states in the first three places for the superioi*ity 4 of their educational systems. another traveler called the

Prussian system the "most perfect in tne world. " 5 Another traveler felt that the United States was "very much behind" Germany in regard to the perfection with which instruction is imparted." One writer bemoaned the fact that American

1 Silliman, a Visit to Europe. II, 359. p ^ Henry k. Field, From the Lakes of Killarnev to the Golden rioini (New York, 1888), pi 141.

3 Eancroft, Letters. I, 90. 4 kann, Reoort. p. 31. Carson, Loiterings in Europe, p. 256.

5 Fisk, Travels in Euroue. p. 487. 132 scnools Tailed to proauce the intellectual enthusiasm that he round in German students,1 ana another felt, alter talking with German students, that America was "playing with p education." Austria, too, came in Tor her share of the American traveler's admiration Tor her excellent school system. The universities received special tributes. Tappan believeu America could create universities at once if the people had the energy and the will. But he claimed in 1352, "<

1 Brace, Home Life, pp. 176-179.

2 Parry, L ife Amone the Germans, p. 2 0 . 3 E. Eeneaict, A Run through Europe, p. 324. 4 Tappan, A Steu. II, 67.

5 Magee, American Student, p. 149. youths from all parts or the world. William James maintained 2 the opportunities for studying were "superb" in Germany. Americans felt that the teaching in German schools and universities was of a higher calibre than teaching in American schools, ana the idea oi‘ teacher training schools appealed to Americans. Wrote one American educator, "...the science and art of teaching ought to be a regular brancii of study

in some 01 our academies and high schools, that those who are looking forward t o this profession may have an oppor- 3 tunity of stuaying its principles." Another traveler agreed that teachers in Germany were particularly fitted for their 4 profession because they were especially trained for it. a s one writer saw it, "leaching is, in Germany not a make­ shift, but a professiun. It is stuaied as a science, unaer tae supervision of tne government, representeu by learned anu capable men....The teacher is almost invariably a person of high social station, and deservedly so. The position he holds is one wnich cannot be reached except by scholarly 5 ana personal merit."

Andrew Dickson .diice, ^utoLiographv (kew York, 1905), T ■ l X p .C -3 •

^ VV. James, Letters. I, 1 2 1 . ^ Galvin Ellis Stowe, He port on Elementary Public Instruction in Europe; Edgar ’.Vail ace Knight, ed. , He ports, on European Education (Aew York, 19o0), p. 309.

4 Hurst, Life and Literature, p. 79. 134 American opinion on the German student was somewhat dividea. Many travelers described him, particularly in the German universities, as sober, industrious, and intellectual. One writer claimed tnnt the German student was the most studious of any group he had ever seen.^ Another described the students as "very attentive" during p lectures, still anotner claimed they had "intellectual faces" ana frequently wore glasses, indicating their

scholarly activity. Yet another said tnat in spite of the idea in tne American feminine mind that German students were romantic creatures, he felt when he saw tnem tnat tney 4 were quiet and scholarly appearing. A fellow student among tnem claimed they were "...an earnest, sober looking set of young men, oluer and graver, and vastly more learned than one would meet in a University in America." On the other hand, these descriptions do not tally very well with the concept of the beer-drinking, duel fighting, coarse-living youths Americans found so distaste­ ful in other connections. There were plenty of comments

1 Dwight, Travels. p. 1=4. ° Sillimen, A Visit to Europe. II, £93. ^ Session, On the Wing, p. £39. 4 j. h. Browne, Sights ano Sensatiuns, ±>. 280. e; Joynes, Ola Letters, p. 33. 135 throughout the narratives to support this picture as well. As one traveler put it, "It is foolishly supposed that these young men com.. here to study, tut I am happy to correct such an error-; they are too sensible to lose the heyday time of life over musty books."'1" Ctner writers believeu that the German student was a very rough and wild 2 individual. Yet perhaps Longfellow described the situation accurately and cJ eared up tnis apparent inconsistency when he said that botn the unrestrained, lusty German youth and the nara-working ix^tellectual were typical of the German students. "...Gome are scholars," he wx*ote, "and otnex-s high, wild fellows."^ In audition to his comment upon the regular school system, the Amex‘i can traveler express ed great interest in work being done in Germany in special schools of vax-ious sorts. Tnis interest was part of the philanthropic move­ ment in the reform period in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, when Americans became concerned about tne care ana training of the blind, the deaf ana dumb, the pnsane, the prisoner, and the slave. Calvin Ellis Stowe

^ d. Vv. »»right, nore^. pp. 268-269. 2 Griffin, Impressions of Germany, pp. 12-15; hurst, Life ana Literature, p. 113; J. R. Browne, American Family, pg. 154-157; Fitman, European breezes, p. 37. 3 Samuel Longfellow, eh. , The Liie of henry hadswox-tn Longfellow with Extx-acts from his Joux-nals and Correspondence Uoston, 1886), I, pp. 166-167. 136 devoted seme time to comment upon the remarkable worn: aone in reform scnools in Germany, ^ and other writers described. the work of' schools for the deaf* and the blind and homes for delinquent cnildren. ' .another writer was impressed by the time ana care spent in training young girls in ’’domestic education" which the Germans diu not seem to find "incompatible 3 with high refinement and cultivation."

But what probably drew the most significant remarks in this brancn of education v/as the emphasis upon practicality and functionalism in many of the German special schools that particularly suited tiie innerently pragmatic outlook of tne American traveler. V/riters described the Vienna Folytecimic Lchool and tne Agricultural College at 4 Hohenheim. Another traveler felt that the training in agriculture given to young men at Dankestadt would eventually have an uplifting effect upon the people.^ Even in the regular elementary schools, one writer maintained that

■** Stowe, Report. p. 2 67.

p Mann, Report. pp. 1 0 , 19; willis, Rural Letters, p. 2cd; Kathaniel P. Lillis, A Summer Cruise in the mediterranean (Detroit, 1653), p. 124. 3 Sedgwick, Letters from Abroaa. p. 149.

4 Teuffel, One Year Abroad, p. 7o; Willis, Summer Cruise. p. 123. ^ Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 307. 137 great attention was paid to "those studies most likely to be or use to the ^upil in future life, as for example, the modern languages, mathematics, civil engineering;, geogx*aphy, drawing, book-keeping, natural philosophy, geology, etc." He also felt that due regard was paid to the student's health.'*' Although Americans generally felt German education was superior to American, they aia not accept the German educational system witnout reservations. They admired it intensely and candidly pointed out its specific superiority to tne American system, as indicated in the foregoing comments. But they were equally free and frank in their criticisms. A good many things seemed wrong to them i/i German education, which, for a few travelers, added up to a realization that education itself was not enough for the liberation of men from political oppression. Knowledge alone, they realized, did not necessarily impart wisdom, and knowledge coula be used as effectively by the despot as by the democracy. One factor in German education that Americans could not accept was state control. State support they applauded, but state control they could not tolerate. Even in 1847,

1 J. B. Browne, American Family, p. 163. 138 one writer recognized the development oi art, letters end sciences in Germany anaer the education system, but he coula not forget the Tact that the schools and universities were " regarded as an instrument oi government'* and were "moulded to produce uniformity of religious and political opinions according to tne ruling standard.Tappan also recognized tnis basic incompatibiility with the .american iaeal of education."" One writer concluded tnat tne excellent educational facilities of Germany were essentially wasted since political freedom and activity were denied to the people. he felt, in addition, that the "treatment of politics in German universities was...more mechanical

4 and formal than vital...." Althougn earlier writers had cautiously admired the nat-Lcnal spirit of patriotism which German schools attempted 5 to arouse in German youth, later writers were concerned over tne fact that Germans were not encouraged, nor in some cases even allowed, to think. Some writers maintained that Germans, for all their profound thoroughness and scholarsnip,

-** Wheaton, "Progress and Prospects," p. 48. 2 Tappan, A Step. 12, 64-65. Calvert, Scenes and Thoughts. Second Series, pp. 40-41 4 Calvert, first Years, p. 201. ^ Stowe, Report. p. 255; Taylor, Views A-foot. P p . 135-140. 139 lacked an inherent quickness or perception that might have made them more sensitive to tne political situation. another claimed that this emphasis upon tnoroughness had not led to any "active intelligence" in them that would Tit them Tor a democratic government.^ The whole concept of specialization in the German universities arew the criticism of the travelers, particu­ larly in the latter part of the nineteenth century. One claimed that a German university was a "rather depressing place...to one who is conscious of knowing nothing in particular, and naving only a general smattering of a lot of things.'*0 Henry Adams believed that the "mental attitude of tne University ^Berlin} was not of the American world.

.r*nd, although Americans had admired the teaching in German schools, professor's in German universities received criticism as well as praise. Andrew Dickson <«hite said that the lectures of Leopold von Ranke coula not be followed because the lecturer* became so absorbed in his subject that he simply "mumbled through a rhapsody." Another traveler maintained

^ W. James, Letters. I, 131; Parry, Life Amonr the Germans. pp. 189-205.

2 Brace, Home Life, pp. 59-60. ° Fhillips Brooks, Letters of Travel (hew York, 1894), P . e-1^.

4 n. Adams, Education, p. 75.

w .hiite, Autobiography. 1 , 3 9 . 140 that American proi'essors could take no worse models for imitation than proi’essors in German universities. ^ In fact, the whole concept of specialization and thoroughness as practiced in the German universities was at odds with the inherent American pragmatic outlook. The quality that Americans praised in the technical and vocation­ al schools of Germany they found wanting in the universities. The vast knowledge the German scholar acquired was value­ less, according to the American, if it had no practical value in the affairs of life. he coulu admire the German’s scholarly eminence anu erudition ano, indeed, ne did; but the emphasis upon distilleu intellectuaiism in German education was not palatable to one nineteenth century American. This traveler anu student in a German university wrote at length on this subject, and his discussion seems pertinent here in that it indicates the waning interest of American thought in German emphasis upon the pure “prestige of the mind” and the rise of pragmatism. lie wrote: There can be little doubt that the German university system is a far broader theoretical plan of education than any our own land as yet possesses, and may ac­ complish a far more perfected educaticnal result; but generally viewed it is the still hive of vast erudition, rather than the school of practical end beneficient learning. A faithful student comes out of the university hail with his doctorate in uis hand, his

^ Joynes, Old Letters, p. 51. 141 head almost gray, and nis eyes blurred with toil; he is more profoundly learned than many of our college professors and presidents; but he looks about him weary anu vacant, and what, shall he do? he cannot teach the ignorant and young, he who has been for years walking in rapt trance with the sovereign minds of the past; he cannot preach or speak, for the fire and ambition of outer action has died within him; he has become a scholar, and nothing but a scholar, and therefore he must go on, and prepare himself for some scholar's position, also struggled for by a hundred others, or starve.... The German university abhors superficialness and is the hiding-place of profound science;...but does it not sometimes fail in practicalness both of a dix*ect ana indirect nature, even becoming in that respect singularly infex*iox* to the American university system? Does it not fail in the communication of its deep intellectual life with the living, true ana generous uses of learning? Is it not too nucn life a reservoir, insteau of a fountain?...... his £the German*s^ thought is far circling and circuitous, and while aiming always at exhaustion of the subject and profundity, loses in the moment of speaking or conversation the electric power* over other minds. Waver was this more plainly illustrated than at the uneventful Union Diet nelu lately at Frankfort on the Rhine, where learned orators consumed months over practical problems of legislation, which a Massachusetts ox* Connecticut member of the -muse of Representatives would have cleax*ly solved in as many d a y s . ... Gex*many must and will have a profound influence on Ame-i-ica, foxvning a x*esistless intellectual gravi­ tation, for Gexnuany is the land of the free and fearless use of Reason.... But let America not yield her own divine birth-right to think, reason, and philosophize to Germany, ox* any other land. Let not America be ashameu of herself, of her own independent mentality, of her own ability to ai*i*ive at the truth, and thus, possessing the healthier elements of practicality, and of a faith born of humility, while learning from Germany, she may teach her teacher, whom much learning has sometimes made mad, ox* at least px-oduced a fax* too absolute and confident idea of philosophy .1

1 Joynes, Old Letters, pp. 13-29. 142 Disillusionment with German "prestige or the mind" did not come ail at once nor did it ever destroy completely Araextican aumiration Tor the German university and the German system of education. In fact, the late nineteenth centux*y saw the full blossoming of the University system in America, with normal schools and vocational and special schools an accepted part or the American education system. The German system oi* graduate study leading to a Fh. D. degree was inaugurated fix*st at John Hopkins in 1676,1 and America uad yet to import from Germany the kindergax*ten and the Uex-bartian methods of teaching. The conflict between the "practical" education, embraced by the strong pragmatic strain in jdnerican thought, ana the "thorough" education, dictated by a traditional admiration fox* the thought and culture of Europe, has raged, under Various terminology ana over various issues, to this aay. The remarkable fact for the purpose of this thesis is that the travel narratives of American experience in Germany reflect both elements in American thought: the magnetism of European intellectual eminence and the magnetism of American practicality. The American admired the German's prodigious mental labor; he also likeu the functional

^ Cubberly, Public Education, p. 652. ^ Ibia., pp. 449-461. 1 4 o

aspect oi German special schools. The -timerican favored

tae exhaustive nature oi German learning; he irowned upon

its isolation from tae affairs of men.

Cne other aspect of nmerican criticism of the Prussian

educational system in the late nineteenth century must be

mentioned before turning to the cultivation of the arts in

Germany.^ Some American travelers noticed witn disgust the

discipline of the German school room. One writex* called it p the "old fashion of cuffing ana knocking." henry naams descx'ibed his conception of it after spenning some time in

a Berlin secondary school studying the German language. he wrote, "The heau-master was excellent in his Prussian way,

a m the othex- instructors were not worse than in other

schools; it was their system that stx-uck the syatemless

American witi horror. The arbitrary tx-aining giveii to the memory was stupefying....The German government dia not «3 encourage reasoxiing." Poultney Bigelow wx^ote of his

^One frequent criticism of German schools in American travel n&rratives was the lack of ventilation in the school room. The school childx*en were reported to be pale and un- healtny from ahe German horx*oi* of admission of fi*esh air into a room during the winter. Lillis, Rural Letters, p. 261; u. iidams, Education, p. 79; ilawthorne, Saxon S t u d i e s . p. 52.

£ Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 261.

3 h. Adams, Education, p. 76. 144 experience in the Prussian school system: "...I learned to

appreciate the wholly impersonal brutalitv of the

cOiiscienuious rrussian drill—master , and in later years,

x accepted the existing order oi' tilings as being probably

well adapted to the particular people over whom this method

is mainly applied . 1,1

These comments represent the views of ^unerican travelers

toward the German educational system, as one aspect of German

cultux*e. They were equally explicit, though not nearly so

detailed> in their reactions to the cultivation of the arts

in Germany.

Literature and the Arts

kVhile the American modified his enthusiasm for German

education in the course of the century, he never ceased to

agree that the system, leaving something to be desired in

its effect upon political life, cultivated a genuine

enthusiasm for the arts in Germany. German artistic

development put the Americans to shame, the traveler seemed

to feel. Emerson had called for a truly national literature,

expressing the native culture and individualism of the o United States. he innundated the nation with a wave of

1 Bigelow, Prussian Memories, p. 8 .

^ Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The nmex*ican Scholar," Phi Eeta Kappa Address delivered at harvard, 1887. 145 cultural nationalism which came to grips with the belief that the aitist in tne United States must copy Euroosan models. honetneless, tnis could, not efface the notion of tne ijnerican traveler in Crermc.iiy that people had a greater ana more refined appreciation of the arts than the United

States and that the century long cultural heritage of Europe gave substance and body to nineteenth century German artistic achievement. American arts and letters seemed gauche and unformed by comparison.

The American traveler often expressed tnis ..otion in his travel narrative. "I am disposed to think art has reached a higher grade of cultivation in Germany now, than in any other country, 1,1 concluded on«.American. mother traveler agreed tnat the Germans possessed a raucn more intense enthusiasm for art. In addition, she felt, they united that enthusiasm with perseverance and energy so that they actually became learned in the arts.^ "Germans are in advance of the whole world," wrote another, “not only in the universality of education, but also in the severity of culture...." James Fenimore Cooper discussed the subject at some length in his narrative concerning a trip to Germany.

1 Brace, Home Life, p. 151.

2 Eames, A Budget Closed, p. £43. 3 »Vight, Peoples and Countries, p. 113. 1 4 6 ne fou.nct trie American people lacking in any sincere undep- standing of artistic cultivation and inclined to "idolize" European art ana artists:

We talk a great deal of our national intelligence in America, and certainly with, truth, when we compare ourselves with these people in many important particulars; but blocks are not colder, ox* can have less real reverence for letters, ax*ts, or indeed cultivation of any kind, than the great bulk of the American people. Thex*e are a few among us wno pretend to worn themselves up into enthusiasm as respects the first, more especially if they can get a foreign name to idolize; but it is apparent, at a glance, that it is not enthusiasm of the pure watex*. F or this, Germany is the land of sensations, whetlier music, poetry, arms, or the more materials ax'ts be their object. 1

Litex*ature, particularly, seemed to the traveler* to be more universally and more actively cherisheu in Gex*many than in America. One traveler recorded hex* amazement when her

German landlauy, apparently a low-born and uncultivated woman, launchea into an animated discussion of the writings or Ernest Henan. .another remarked that not only air ordinary

Germans seem to be familiar* with European literature, but they also knew ana expressea great interest in the worn of

Irving ana of Cooper* from America . 0 Another wx*iter repox*ted that many Germans were "wonders of information" and a

James Fenimore Cooper, A Residence in France: with an Excursion uj the Rhine and a Second Visit to Switzerland vLondon, 1SG7), pZ 249.

^ Jackson, Bits of Travel, p. 6 .

° Bi’ace, Home L ife, p. 64. 147

"delight to listen to" when they talked of German l.iteratux*e and aj. t and tne classics*^ Another felt tnat the patronane of tne governments of Germany encouraged literatui*e: "It is pleasant to see with what attention every government in

Germany fosters literature; and this is extended not only to the accommodation of the favorea few, but all classes are made to share in the benefits of .instruction* " 2

Furthermore, ximerictn travelers looked with envy on

Germany's magnificent libraries and recognized how fax- the

United States had to go to accumulate any comparable reservoirs of thought and literature. ./rote one traveler in 1626, "No one can lament more tnen myself tne poverty of our libraries. I should look upon the individual wno would establish sucn a library in the United Gtates, as that of G'dttingen, as the greatest benefactor to my country, who has lived since the days of ^asnington*"° What especially disturbed him was the fact that tne United Otates v;as richer A thaii Prussia but spent little money on such improvements.

This same point bothered John Lothrop Motley* He v.ras

Teuffel, One Year Abroad, p. 171.

2 Fisk, Travels in Europe, pp. 453-464.

3 Dwight, Travels. pp. 103-184.

4 Ibid. 148

impressed by the money spent by the German governments on

picture galleries, statue galleries, and libraries. ne

coulu not see any reason why /unerica should not put some

01“ :ier surplus money to wox-k for similar purposes.^" Another

trc veler felt it was remarkable that such libraries should

exist, but it was even more remarkable that anyone might p draw books from them. '

On the other hand, a few travelers claimed that Germans

did not read much, in spite of their education and the

facilities at hand. This was, in effect, a flat contx-adiction

of the earlier statements. One traveler maintained that 3 "not one in a hundred ever tminks ox' reading. " Another

noticed tnat few people could afford to buy books, and

"nobody pux*chased a book mei*ely to pass away the time on

the railwa 3Ts."^ That kind oi* reading, he said, was rare because people could not afford books and because tne Germans

were a sociable people anyway. Perhaps what the traveler

was really trying to say here was that the Germans took their reading as seriously as other pleasures and did not

± kotley, Correspondence, I, 38.

2 Fisk, Ti’avels in Europe, p. 471.

^ Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 387.

^ J. 3. Browne, Amex-ican Family, p. ISO.

Ibid. 149 reau frivolously ana purely for amusement. They fostered and encouraged literature, but they aid not take their reading lightly.

This conclusion can be supported by American reaction to German newspapers and the German press. The American traveler usually found tne German press a sad and uninspiring affair, quite unrelated to tne vigorous and animated news­ papers on which he had been nurtured. One writer stated that families seldom subscribed to nev/spapers but people reau them in coffee-houses or club-rooms.^ /mother remarked that while there existed "very respectable scientific and literary periodicals for the learned...nothixig like a 2 newsi.acer exists in the whole country." Travelers complained oven tne meagre size and uninteresting offerings of tne press and ovex* the government censorship which they felt stifled the interest in news stories.^" Tappan concluded that Germany was "the land of books, but not of newspapers, 5 contrasting thus strongly with our own country." Another traveler decided that the German people simply did not care g fox* newspapers as Americans understood their:.

Brace, no me Life, pp. £79-281. 2 Johnson, feasant Life, p. 263.

.Earner, Saunterin^s. p. 143. 4 J. R. Browne, Amex^ican Family, p. 119.

^ Tappan, A Bteu, II, p* 25. G Fulton, Europe Viewed, p. 14. 150

Here again, the American revealed his impatience with the culture oi' Germany that over-refined and isolated thought from the lives of individuals. He granted the superiority of German libraries and the German's extensive knowledge of literature. But the here and the now, the business of the day, the literature of the passing moment, were quite neglected in German culture. Such a sentiment expressed an idea compai*atle to the traveler's irritation with the isolation and intellectual!zed abstraction of the

German university. "Germany knows how to live the life of the mind," the traveler seemed to reflect, "but tae American people will never tolerate a life of the mind txiat is apart from and unexpressed in the life of the body in this world."

In other branches of the arts, in music, for example, the Americans whole heartedly delighted in the superiority of Germany. In no phase of cultural expression did America's contribution seern more paltry to the traveler after an experience in Germany than in music. The German's passionate love for music was commented upon with admiration over and over again in the travel narratives. And this aspect of

German culture did actually seem as much a part of tne

German's daily life as breathing. One v/riter said the

Gex*man passion fo r music was not even superceded by the

Italian. "It is not merely an accomplishment, but a study;" 151 he claimed, "indeed, a part of their* existence."^ Motley agreed that they were the most musical people on earth and believed that almost every student could play at least one instrument and sing a thousand soncs . 2 Another maintained that it was a part of ordinary family life, even in families wire re there was no other accomplishment. ^ Others likewise commented upon the fact that the German's devotion to music ana fondness for education in it was a natural cnaracteristic 4 of the people. As one writer put it, "iiivery city, town, ana village in Germany, in fact is a musical centre; every

German family is a musical centre, ana every German in aimself is a living combination of musical mechanism . " 0

What particularly impressed the American traveler was the arduous training that the musician in Germany submitted to. Americans themselves went to Germany to study music and one such student commented, "in comparison with the 0 drill I am now receiving my Boston teaching v/as mere play."

Dwight, T r a v e l s . pp. 143-144.

ry Motley, Correspondence. I, 30. 3 Sedgwick, Letters from Abroad. I, 232.

^ MacGavock, A Tennessean Abroad, p. 376; Lillis, rural letters« p* 265. Tap pan, XI, tj7, Lee, European Davs ana Wavs, p. 22; Clare Benedict, ea., The Benedicts abroad (.London, 1950,, p. 29.

5 Huggles, Germany without Spectacles, p. 94.

6 Fay, Music S t u d y , p. 24. mL.-] n.-- wiot.^er Etuaeut felt that it was nifficult iop the nmerican to enter the race I'or eminence in music so late in contrast to tuc. early rigorous training in Gexvnany. furthermore, she claimed the German had before him continually the chance to stuay by observing truly great masterpieces ana ^ex-formers, whicii the American totally lacked.^ Nevertheless, American traveler's expressed theix* appi*eciation of tnis training in tne excellence of musical performances. One writer main­ tained that tne status granted to tne musician in Germany was considerable higher than that riven in the Jnitea states, me saia that the composer in Germany helu "the minrled esc.' r:ht.i.Oia of the scaolax* ana the poet. Aiiot:nr hoped tnnt the ,iaT’ wo f a come when nmexaica would possess the 4 * Gvantares of a rich musical cultu.ce. " Althou.u soia n.:er.ic< ms aia not line all Gex*man music, as indicated in in rk iwain's 5 1 a.ious comment upon hagner, they usually recognized tne genuine enthusiasm ana tiie intense satisfaction that the

German found in music.

^ Pai*ry, Life **mong; the Gex'mans, pp. c-25.

^ Locke, hasb^ in Exile, pp. 632-634.

^ Willis, Rural Letters, p. 263.

4 Gaze, Leisurely Journey, pp. 107-115.

° "Trie banging and slamming and booming and crashing were something beyond belief. Tne racking: anu pitiless pain of it remains stored up in my :ne:rorr alon.-r side of the meraor; of the time I nad mv teeth fixed. " Twain, T j ‘r,tr ;) Ab_ro_ad., I, 7, . 153

Appreciation or the cultural advantages of Germany in regard to the other arts was also apparent in the travel narratives, although no writer dealt with them as extensive­ ly as with literature and music. The American traveler felt that tiie student of art, like the student of music, had superior opportunities for study in Germany. he stated that the existence of galleries and museums ..as

"gratifying to cultivated minds" and believed tnat America might well emulate this aspect of German cultural life . 2

«nu he enjoyed and approved the popularity and patronage of the German theatre .0

Few American travelers, however, were willing to sacrifice the superior material comforts of life in the

Jiiitea Ltates for the cultural development they found and

"*■ Eamuel riawkins mars nail dyers, Twenty-five Tears in Europe (Chicago, 1900), p. 1 5 7 .

2 E. Benedict, n Hun through Europe, pp. G7:-38G. 3 Charles Eliot Aortcn, ea., Letters of James Kussell 1 5 4 brutality of oaily life. One writer commented, "The incongruities strike us eveiy where: a high appreciation v. 1* tii-- Tine arts, and an utter insens it Llity to beauty and comfort in the daily life and family arraiigeidcxits."^

The American traveler looked upon the chasm between the life of tne mina ana the lire of the boay as an un­ fortunate compartmentalization of culture. This was the basic tneme of the travel narrative when the traveler tried to correlate his favorable and unfavorable experiences in Germany. The German nature v;as both refined and rough; tiie German university professor was isolated from the life of his own day, partly through the German facility for abstraction, and partly through the strict control of tiie government. Likewise, the noblest expressions of man in literature and art possessed vitality o n l y in the realm of the mina. The American noted, furthermore, that the government established upon the principle of force, or cismarck's blood and iron, took little cognizance of the rich cultux*al tradition of Germany in dignifying and glorifying the daily life and personal integrity of the individual. One writer in Germany in the eighties was particularly concerned about this point and finally concluded that Germany did not have "a true culture" that tie united States could imitate in the lights of its ideals.

^ Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 168. 155 one could not accept a government based upon force and saia: Our high idea oi‘ true culture will never admit tnis as tx*uth. True culture means nearer, ever nearer to tx*utn, a cultivation of the highest expx-essiun of the noblest feelings of tne heart. The heart must be cultux*ed in truth, and in the expression of this, ana tnis alone, outward forms are but to express true feelings, and, as such, they are of value and beauty. This is the culture that America is to seek, and for which she has an open field. Barbarism, heathendom, corruption, ages of force ana cruelty and false systems, do not lie behind our history, are not fetters upon our society. Outward expressions axe still uncouth, untrained, from the necessity to civilize a wild, new country, and the need for severe labor, admitting of no society or polish. We need something now to round the cox*nex*s, make the x-ourh places smooth ana the crooked straight; something to soften the brusque, uneven awkwardness, to tone the loud, ostentatious self-consciousness, forms we do need to tutor the intercourse of people with each other, some outer ceremonies may refine our national manners, all tnis comes alone with time, settled society, matex*ial comfort, an older civilization. Then will the graces of culture be united to what exists in one nation,-- trutn of heax*t, ana the result will be a society such as the Old World can never realize. Tnis is the great problem for our nation to work out,---to develop a highex- culture and at the same time maintain tiie integrity of the heart.l

InIo matter how much American ti*avelers admix*ed the superior cultural achievements of Germany, they were not ready to borrow that culture wholesale without a great deal of selection. Their appreciation of German culture might indicate a certain dissatisfaction with the status of artistic endeavor i/i the United States. But the ideal

Parry, Life Among the Germans, pp. 137-188. 156 American culture nad to rest upon a rundamentai recognition oi' individual responsibility and the possioility of indi­ vidual virtue tnat the Germany of the late nineteenth century did not possess.

Religion

The opinion of the wnerican traveler in Germany toward that nation's religious impulse and expression was primarily critical. The American objected to the state of religion in Germany on three grounds: state control, the Catholic influence, and the influence of speculative philosophy* Tne chief nistox-icai fact of religious organization in Germany has been the split along the main River* between Protestant North Germany, including; Px*ussia, ana Catholic iboutii Germany, inducing Austria. Guring the Confeaeration of tne Rhine tinder Napoleon some movement toward religious hegemony haa been made. The ecclesiastical states had been secularized and diviaed up among the new German states, with Prussia getting the lion's share. 1 And in 1617, the tercentenary of Luther's Ninety-five Theses, King Frederick William III of Prussia had attempted a consolidation of g the Lutheran and the German Reformed (Calvinistic) Churches.

1 J. H. Rose, "The Political Historv," Germany in the Nineteenth Century, p . 4.

2 Valentin, The German People, p. 596. 157 devertneless, tiie cleavage between Protestant and Ca.tn.olic Germany was not to be mended, so easily, anu. the principle of tae ft ate Church was an established fact in the Germanies. r'urtiierinore, in the nineteenth century, the scientific spirit besieged Christianity by applying historical criticism ana investigation to the life of Christ, or what v;as known as "nigher criticism. " The eminence of speculative philoso­ phy as tne inheritance of Kant and Hegel took much German thought out of tne realm of the church and accepted theology. These facts the American traveler confronted on his travels through Germany and they were inimical to tae independent, earnest, Protestant American. If the -hinerican traveler was cuuviuced of any one principle of government, it was that church and state should be separated for the ultimate fulfillment and realization of both institutions. He had expected to dislike tiie control of Catholicism on the Austrian states and the states of boutnern Germany, but he felt that the subordinance of the Lutheran Church to the state of Prussia was equally disastrous. One writer of 1857 said she believed Prussia "leads the rest of Germany in religious intolerance and oppression."^ another objected to the law requiring Confirmation in the Luthex*an Church in Prussia, because he felt it throttled

Johnson, Peasant Life, pp. 78-8 2 . 158 any geiiuint; religious sentiment. It forced the German "to look upon the profession of nis faith much as he does upon his drill and his tax-paying, as a tasu commanded by government, which he had better go through with quietly, and so save himself from fine."^ Another writer agreed that the required support of a state church deadened religious expression. -but, claimed one traveler, the American takes his religious liberty so for granted that religious oppression was certain to be something of a shock to aim. ’’The political freedom of the united dtates is so great,” he wrote, "and so distinctly seen and felt by every individual, that we rarely think of tne great superiority of oux* religious liberty to taat of every other country. To the system of state control, the American traced a good deal of the falling off of active religious faith among the German people, particularly in Protestant Germany. One traveler noted that in spite of the law requiring confirmation, few Germans went to church.^ Bancroft claimed that Christianity or at least an avowal of its principles (except for Jews) was almost a necessity to being elected

^ Brace, Home Life, p. 60. q Heistanu, Travels in Germany, p. 76.

3 Dwight, Travels, p. 307. 4 Magee, American btudent. p. 8 g. 159 in America, but that even avowea atheism did not seem to

harm the politician's chances in Germany.1 Another wrote m lo£7 that a "painful decay" in the faitn and spirituality oi the people had occurred in Central Europe, although p Catholicism still nela a mighty grip on some regions. Tne American was certainly not disposed to favor Catholicism even if it were still forceful, for he regarded it as tne bulwark of political oppression anu religious sterility. he resented especially tne power of the clergy in Catholic Germany. One traveler in Austria in 1945 declared that tne only limitation upon imperial power was tne power of the clergy. "Their rulers, nominally the most absolute," he wrote, "and in some respects really so, are in others subject to the most humiliating dependence and surveillance. In all matters affecting religion and that

extends to everything they are not free and dare not act. " 3 Another traveler described the clergy as disgusting in appearance. "I did not see one genuine, manly, intelligent face," he claimed. 4 Bancroft called them a "band of 5 conspirators," ana another traveler maintained they were

1 Bancroft, Letters. II, 171. o ~ iSexlows, Tiie Old >.orld. I, 101.

3 Litchell, Notes from Over the Tea. II, 4G.

4 Brace, Home Life, p. 591. 5 Bancroft, Letters, II, 505. 160 using medieval methods to maintain their uold on the people."^ Tappan stated that he was carried to aesthetic ecstasies over the Catnedral of Cologne and repelled by the priests conducting mass in it.^ In addition to the American traveler's antipathy Tor the Homan Catholic clergy, he disliked what he called superstition and tiie worship of relics, statues, and symbols. vine traveler worried about tne heavy emigration to America of people who worshipped "odds anu ends." Another granted tout the cathedrals were glorious in their splendor, but sue felt that die not atone for their "rottenness." She wrote, "From these majestic arches, that triumphant chant, t.mere is but a step down to the vforship of dead men's bones 4 anu all uncleanness •" One writer i. elieved this use of relics frequently descended to tiie cheap and tawdry. Che disliked the use of "cotton lace, cheap gilding, wreaths of bouquets of tawdx*y ai*tificial flowers." In yet another way, Catholicism disturbed the religious comfort of tiie innerican travelers. ne could appreciate tne

1 Warner, Saunterinrs, p. 139. o.app an, utsOi H » 53—54.

° John Overton Choule, Young Americans Abroac; or Travels in mnrland. France, Belgium. Prussia, and Switzerland hoston, 165E7TP- 257. ^ H. r. Stovve, Sunny M e m o r i e s , II, 33C. 5 irs. f. ruckhout, Aftermath: from oity ana Country, Berg and Thai (Hew York, 18c2), p. 52. 161 CatiiedrEls end the beauty of the ceremony, but he could not forget, nor forgive, Catholic persecution of Protestants. Tne American was inclined to omit the fact that his own forbears in New England nad been guilty of persecution also. So carried away was one tx-aveler by his own nation's righteous ness tnat he proclaimed, "he have no more such theological cruelty and hatred. No gibbet, ana no burning stakes, ana also no new Cathedrals.Another traveler observed that during a Catholic service, he was troubled by a few discrepancies of doctrine, but he concluded that if one reflected at all in a Catholic Church, one would get little O comfort our of tne service.*' It would be inaccurate, however, to give the impression tnat ail of the American travelers were the victims of such anti-Catholic sentiment. Not a few were impressed by the seriousness and devotion with which the German Catholic expressed nis faith. The simplicity of the peasant who come to Church in his humble garb and knelt by the noble in iiis sumptuous array struck a coord of sympathy in the American's heart. One writer noticed that no distinctions were recognized in a Cathedx-al but each was regarded "as

^ E. Eenedict, A hun Through Europe, pp. 386-387. ^ Z. Sweeney, Under Ten Flags (Cincinnati, 1388), p . 4.6. S' C> 1T a weau and erring mortal coming tc confess his sins and crave the special spiritual consolation needed.another was deeply impressed by the devotional manner of peasant women who came into the church to pray for an nour and then 2 went away. Some writers felt tne poetic beauty of the Catholic service and were brought to a greater understanding and appreciation of it.'"' One writer claimed, "...we nave not only seen made differently in the first place, but grown up under influences so dissimilar that to judge one a*.other is impossible, and may possibly be a greater sin tnun even idolatrous woi*ship. An American Protestant minister granted that the faith of the Catholics might be as true, and deep, and lasting as his own. The principle of liberty of conscience was implicit in tne American's whole attitude towax-d German religious life and ne was pleased when he saw that religious groups couia live together in harmony. A missionary bewailed the persecution of Protestants in Eavaria in 1820 and even

Emerson, European Glimpses ana Glances, p. 42.

2 .Varner, Saunterinws. p. 114. 3 E. K. V* ashing ton, Echoes of Europe; or Word Pictux*es of Travel (Philadelphia, 1860), p. 160. 4 Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 139. ^ 8tone, rrankl'ort to liunich, p. 43. 163 spoke tc tae Crown Fi*ince on their behalf.^ Eut others remarxed tnat a mixed group oi’ students appeared to live .guile amicably at ^eidelberg.^ Anotner noticed that Catholics and Protestants in Augsburg got along “without figntang." This sort oi unity, the American traveler believed, was superior to the enforced unity of Prussia and ..arts oi* north Germany in the manufactured union of Reformed and Lutheran churches. One writer called that a failure. 11 there is no more real unity than there was in the old days of bitter controversy,rt he wrote. 4 In addition, the persecution of the Jews that re-awoke in i’ury in Germany in the seventies anu eighties aid not settle werl wita Americans. They had looked witn favor upon the progress of liberating tne Jew1 from age-old persecutions that took place in the earlier nineteenth century. One traveler in Berlin in 1326 noted that the Jews seemed better treated there and mingled more with tne Christian society than in most other countries of

Grellet, Memoirs. II, 95. p ° Fish, Travels, p. 450; Silliman, ^ Visit to Europe. II, 23C.

^ George Palmer Putnam, A Pocket Memorandum Book during a Ten week's Trio to Italy and Germany in 1847 Ihew York, lo48), p. 1 2 0 .

4 Erace, Home Life, p. 320. 164

Europe. 1 Another rejoiced in 1356 when Frankfort bestowed upon then some of the privileges of citizenship.? But a traveler of the eighties shrewdly remarked that the new persecutions were the result of German resentment and jealousy of the economic position of many Jews. "xhe poor Jew," she wrote, "...is not so openly disliked as the rich and prosperous one, and especially if he has cultivation 3 ana refinement of manner." Although one American defenued

tne Germans by claiming that the3r were not fundamentally anti-Semetic, he ana other Americans were inclinea to find the persecution "strange and unsavory. For all his implied faith in liberty of conscience, the American of Puritan ana Evangelical background was shocked at what he ref ex-red to as "tne desecration of the Sabcath." Sunday was regarded as a holiday in continental Europe, and when the American saw even his Protestant brethren in north Germany frolicking on that day, he traced it to the Catholic influence of south Germany. One American

1 Dwight, Travels, p. 131.

C'-i ^ Johnson, Peasant Life, p. 013. 3 Fitinan, Eux-opean Breezes, p. 6 8 . ^ Poultney Bigelow, -Borderland of tne Czar and the kaiser : dotes from Both Siaes of the Busslan Frontier (new Yor--, lo95 ), pp. 124-130; Stone, Frankfox-t to Munich, p. 14. 165 clergyman traveling in Germany was horrified in 1635 when a aerman minister oi trie Rei oi’med Chui’cii inviteu him to the theatre on Sunday. The American wrote in disgust, "I told him I might as well cut my own throat, as go, and report the same in .America... .Cnristians do not go to the theatre in any country."^ Another writer reported that '•The gooa Lutheran pastor will preach you a sermon Sunday morning that will make you cry, and ash you to a game of

earns witn him beiore the organ is done, playing.'*2 Another maintained tnat even ii‘ a minister aanced in the signt ol‘ his waole congregation, "they would have listened to him on the next Sabbatn with no less autii'ul reverence."^ hnile the American or tne nineteenth century in general disapproved oi these laxities granted to tne clergy, he was just as shocked and found it just as unpleasant that the Gorman peasant treated the Sabbath as a day of pleasure ana rejoicing. He danced, went to the beer-gardens, picnicked, went to concerts ana the theatre. Americans were I'amiliax* with the custom in France and Italy, Catholic countries, but they had not